NIAMEY, July 25 (Reuters) - A journalist working for French radio in Niger must remain in prison after the country's prosecutor appealed on Friday against a court order this week dismissing charges of collaboration with rebels, a judge said. Moussa Kaka, who works for French state-owned Radio France International (RFI), has spent 10 months in prison. The charges against him have twice been dismissed only for the prosecutor to appeal both times against the freeing of the journalist. A union of journalists in Niger on Friday condemned Kaka's continued detention as political harassment. The rebels Kaka is accused of colluding with are Tuareg-led forces who launched an uprising in the uranium-producing north of the desert nation in February last year saying they want a greater share of the country's resources. "The public prosecutor appealed on Friday against the decision of the head judge's decision and Moussa Kaka must remain in prison until ... Niamey's court of appeals examines it," a court judge told Reuters, asking not to be named. It was not immediately clear when the appeals court would examine Kaka's case, which was launched after the government recorded his telephone conversations with rebel leaders. RFI says that the only contact Kaka has had with the rebellion has been in his capacity as a journalist. Niger has slapped a strict ban on foreign journalists visiting the north, where sporadic battles and ambushes have taken place, leaving 200 rebels and 70 government soldiers dead during the conflict. Several foreign reporters have been arrested and deported for breaking the ban. Independent information on the conflict is nearly impossible to come by and some accuse the government of using emergency powers in the north to silence criticism of its handling of the conflict. "With this decision of the prosecutor, there is clearly deep bitterness and we can say that there is political harassment in the case of Moussa Kaka," Oumarou Lalo, secretary general of the Niger Union for Private Journalists, told Reuters on Friday. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi, Writing by David Lewis, Editing by Alistair Thomson)
