LOMÉ, Togo (AP) — Two French documentary filmmakers and their Togolese fixer have been jailed in Togo after more than three weeks in custody in the West African nation, an advocacy group said Thursday, amid strained relations between the government and French media.Reporters Without Borders said that filmmakers Gaël Mocaër and Sebastian Perez Pezzani and fixer Fred Vedomey were placed in pretrial detention Monday and charged with making “false declarations” in immigration procedures.The Paris-based media freedom group, known by its French acronym RSF, called for their immediate release.Mocaër and Perez Pezzani were filming an episode of a documentary series for a French public television network when police arrested the three on July 27 in Kara, northern Togo, RSF said. Northern Togo has been plagued in recent years by attacks from armed groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
The detentions come as Togo has moved closer to Russia and to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, three military-led countries that have expelled or sidelined French forces and strengthened relations with Moscow.Russia and Togo signed a military cooperation agreement last year providing for joint exercises and military training.
