Togo: A businessman who supported young peaceful demonstrators demanding democratic reforms

On the night of 21 December 2018, Togolese-born Irish citizen Abdoul Aziz Goma was arrested, tortured, and thrown into detention in Lomé, Togo. He offered temporary shelter to young students who had travelled to Lomé to participate in peaceful protests. This act of solidarity resulted in a 10-year prison sentence. Unwillingly, Goma became a symbol of the ongoing repression against human rights defenders in Togo. Goma was finally released in January 2026, after 7 years of arbitrary detention.

Arrested for solidarity

Abdoul Aziz Goma is a Togolese-born businessman and Irish national who had settled in Ireland during the last years while continuing his commercial activities in Togo. Goma’s human rights involvement arose unexpectedly. He was arrested on 21 december 2018 for supporting young peaceful demonstrators demanding democratic reforms in Togo. At the request of a friend, he had temporarily accommodated protesters who had come from rural areas to Lomé. For this act of solidarity, he was accused of crimes against state security and imprisoned.  

Over time, Goma’s willingness to assist, even indirectly, became the basis for severe state reprisals. Civil society organizations view his arrest as an attempt to intimidate those who support peaceful assemblies. His case has since become emblematic of the dangerous climate for human rights defenders and those offering humanitarian assistance in Togo. 

Togo’s repressive environment

Togo’s political environment remains tensed. Dissent is routinely suppressed, with protests met by harsh crackdowns, arrests without warrants, and judicial processes heavily influenced by the executive. Activists and ordinary citizens alike face arbitrary detention, ill-treatment in custody, and overcrowded, under-resourced prisons that lack adequate food, healthcare, and legal safeguards. In June 2025, the civic space in Togo was brutally restricted when peaceful demonstrations were met with military-style repression, arbitrary arrests, torture, and even deaths under alarming circumstances. More than 100 people, including minors, women, journalists, and healthcare workers, were detained, many subjected to enforced disappearances, beatings, and degrading treatment in the Anti-Gang Brigade facility. 

Brutal arrest and torture 

On 21 December 2018, while returning from a dinner out, Abdoul Aziz Goma was abruptly stopped by armed men in plain clothes, later identified as agents from the Special Intervention Unit of the Gendarmerie (U.S.I.G), and violently arrested without a warrant. He and his companions were driven to the headquarters of the Service Central de Recherches et d'Investigation Criminelle (SCRIC) – a criminal investigation unit – where they were again beaten. Goma was handcuffed to a car and a tree, enduring repeated torture until he vomited blood and passed out.  

Ten days later, he was presented to the public prosecutor and informed that he faced charges including aggravated disturbance of public order, criminal conspiracy, destruction of public property, and undermining state security. He submitted several requests for provisional release that were denied without justification, while an investigation into his torture allegations remained pending. 

Nearly six years after his arrest, Goma’s trial finally began on 3 February 2025. On that same day, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, publicly condemned his conviction, describing it as based on his humanitarian actions and not on any actual crime. 

Severe health deterioration in detention

Goma endured dire prison conditions. While held in secret detention and later in the severely overcrowded Civil Prison of Lomé – a facility designed for 600 inmates but holding over 2,000 – he endured poor sanitation, insufficient food (often only one meal per day or none), and limited healthcare. His health remarkedly deteriorated due to torture and deprivation. Despite repeated requests, his transfer or release on humanitarian grounds was denied, and while a court inquiry into his torture claims was ordered, it has yet to be conducted. In August 2025, Aziz Goma began a hunger strike to denounce his inhumane detention conditions and demand justice, despite his already fragile health. One week later, he was admitted to the emergency ward due to a rapid deterioration in his health.

Release after seven years of detention

On 1 January 2026, Abdoul Aziz Goma was released after spending 7 years in prison in Togo. A result achieved thanks to the advocacy of national and international stakeholders. In March 2023, Freedom Now and McKool Smith petitioned the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which ruled that his detention was arbitrary, citing violations of his rights to fair trial, assembly, and association—and called for his immediate release and full reparations. In August 2024, the International League Against Arbitrary Detention reinforced that recommendation, urging Togo to comply with the UN opinion. No new developments on his release or sentence annulment were reported since his conviction.  In April 2025, his lawyers had filed a request for pardon addressed to the President of the Republic, and in August 2025 they submitted a request for conditional release, based on both legal grounds and urgent health concerns. 

Goma himself recalls how, while detained, “Organisations such as the OMCT, Freedom Now, local NGOs in Lomé, and civil society actors mobilised on my behalf. Knowing that people were raising their voices and that organisations were working together to secure my release gave me the strength to persevere. This solidarity was one of the factors that helped bring about my release on 1 January 2026.” 

While detained, Abdoul Aziz Goma was subject to both psychological and physical torture, including mock executions. He remains to this day committed to pursuing the advocacy efforts that freed him so to free other human rights defenders who are still imprisoned in Togo and elsewhere.

Please, join us in calling for the release of all human rights defenders arbitrarily detained.