Bissau-based private radio station Pindjiqidy Radio broadcast early Wednesday a phone call from the head of Guinea Bissau’s navy, Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchute, in which he denied involvement in the 6 August unsuccessful coup attempt against President Joao Bernardo Vieira.

The navy chief denied news reports Guinean officials had arrested him last week, and said he was 50 km from Bissau when the military attempted the coup. Tchute did not reveal his whereabouts.

This early dawn call followed reports in French media on Wednesday that Tchute had escaped police interrogations in Bissau and fled to neighbouring Gambia where officials detained him, according to a Gambian government statement released on 12 August.

Once his whereabouts are confirmed, Sandra Valle, a legal senior advisor with the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), says Guinea Bissau’s Ministry of Justice can issue a warrant for his arrest and request his extradition for further questioning in Bissau.

Valle, previous director of the UNODC office in Bissau, said the Lyons-based international crime fighting organisation Interpol can arrest and hold Tchute for extradition.

Valle said it is important to follow international and national laws in carrying out investigations into the coup attempt.

Guinea Bissau’s government has requested donor assistance for its justice system, which has faced a heavier work load in recent years related to drug cartels cutting through the island.

Drug traffickers, coming mostly from Latin America, but increasingly from other countries, are transporting their drugs through Guinea Bissau’s southern mangroves on hard-to-reach islands, on dusty airstrips throughout the country, and even the national airport, according to UN reports.

Guinean military leaders have denied its armed forces accept bribes to look the other way.

The military holds a prominent role in the archipelago West African state, which has been rocked by multiple coups and coup attempts since winning independence in 1974.

President Vieira came to power the first time in 1980 and was ousted 19 years later, both times through military coups. He was elected to office again three years ago.

IRIN