“Free Mouctar Diallo in The Gambia”

That’s the title of a Facebook page. HERE.

Mouctar is a graduate student at our university, and I just heard from his thesis committee member Professor Joseph Hill (Anthropology) that he’s being held without a lawyer in The Gambia. Charge: “terrorism” and “trying to spread Egypt’s revolutionary ideas.” Apparently, the problem was simply that he came from Egypt to The Gambia and had certain books in his possession that were deemed revolutionary.

I’ve never met Mouctar, but did process the paperwork for his research. Have a look at the Facebook page.

As his student colleague Philip Rizk puts it in our student newspaper article:

“Diallo’s books with critical views of the state and Marxist ideology did not go over well with the authorities. His presence and research activities were questioned and Mr. Diallo was put under investigation by the Gambian National Intelligence Agency (NIA). Charges revolve around Mr. Diallo being ‘a threat to national security.’”