Niger: Journalist Moussa Kaka remains in jail

This story is only an hour old, so check the link for updates.

From Reuters:

A court in Niger has refused a request for the provisional release of a journalist working for French radio station RFI detained last September for suspected links to Tuareg rebels, legal sources said on Tuesday.

Moussa Kaka, director of a private radio station and RFI's Niger correspondent, was arrested on Sept. 20 and accused of receiving gifts or direct payment for reports on the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), a rebel group in the desert north.

RFI says the only contact Kaka, who is from Niger, had with the rebellion was through his work as a journalist.

An appeals court in the capital Niamey on Tuesday rejected a request for Kaka's provisional release and overruled a previous court decision that phone-tap evidence presented by the government against Kaka was illegal.