Togo: Relatives of Frenchman Steeve Rouyar, detained for three months, "very worried"

What was Steeve Rouyar doing in Lomé on June 6? That day, a rare mobilization shook the West African country, ruled with an iron fist by Faure Gnassingbé, who has been in power for 20 years. Young people took to the streets to protest the arrest of critical voices, the rise in electricity prices, and, above all, the new Constitution, which allows the Togolese leader to remain in power without term limits.

Three days later, the Lomé prosecutor's office announced that a Frenchman was among the fifty or so "protesters" arrested on June 6. His family, having had no news, learned on social media that it was Steeve Rouyar. "It was a big shock for us," confided his brother Mickaël. "We know very little about how he was arrested and the charges."

How did this unremarkable 44-year-old accountant, father of two, originally from Guadeloupe and living in Togo since November 2024, become embroiled in the turmoil of local politics? According to a source with access to the case file, Steeve Rouyar is being prosecuted for aggravated public disorder, an offense he admitted before an investigating judge, for which he faces one to five years in prison. He is also charged with "endangering state security," which he denies, and carries a sentence of 20 to 30 years in prison. He allegedly participated in the production of leaflets before being arrested at a rally and detained at the Central Service for Research and Criminal Investigation (SCRIC), the same source claims.

NFP candidate for the legislative elections

His brother claims not to know "to what extent (Steeve) took part in the movement," even if "he must have been sensitive to what was happening" in Togo. The accountant is also a committed activist. First, in Guadeloupe, where he started his practice 20 years ago, after growing up in the Paris region. He is running in the 2017, 2022, and 2024 legislative elections, notably under the banner of the New Popular Front (left) - and each time garnered less than 1% of the vote.

On his Facebook account, whose last post dates back to June 6, he regularly criticizes Emmanuel Macron 's policies, the anti-Covid vaccination, and displays his support for the Palestinian cause. In recent months, he has shared publications glorifying the juntas that seized power by force in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, from which they expelled France. He also relays messages from pan-Africanist influencers, detractors of the former colonial power, with which Togo continues to maintain rather cordial relations.

The Rouyars maintain that this eldest of five siblings came to Togo to open a new accounting firm in a growing African market, before encountering administrative procedures that were more complex than expected. "He was optimistic about the situation in Africa; he saw a liberation of the people and wanted to get involved," says Astrid Michée, a member of the committee for his release.

“Very thin”

"He told me, 'I'm not with the opposition, I'm with the people,'" added his father, Dominique Rouyar, reached by phone. Dominique Rouyar is "very worried" about his son, "detained in inhumane conditions and sitting in the dark all day" with 11 fellow inmates. "They don't give him anything to eat, they don't take him for walks, he sleeps on the floor," he says.

During their last telephone conversation at the end of August, the imposing Guadeloupean (1.95 m, 90 kg) confided to him that he was "very thin." "I didn't recognize his voice," said Dominique Rouyar. When contacted, the Quai d'Orsay did not comment on his situation.

According to the opposition, the violent repression of the June protests left seven dead - the prosecutor's office reported five deaths "by drowning." A Togolese government source assured the press that "the rule of law is well respected," asking to "let the justice system do its work" while awaiting the end of the investigation.