Voice of America
19 Sep 2019, 13:46 GMT+10
YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - Cameroon's law courts are at a standstill as lawyers for a third day Wednesday defy government threats and continue to protest what they say are widespread unbearable rights violations that include torture, illegal and prolonged detention of accused persons.
Observers say the strike may compromise the national dialogue ordered by President Paul Biya to solve the separatist conflict rocking the country.
Three hundred and eighty cases have been on the schedule at the Ekounou tribunal in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, since Sept. 16 and none of them have been heard.
Patrick Mbella, 45, who is in pre-trial detention for aggravated theft, says when he arrived at the court on Wednesday morning, his lawyer was not there.
Mbella says he does not know what to do after the judge asked that he be taken back to detention because the government had not succeeded in convincing the lawyers to call off their strike.
Peter Seme of the Cameroon Bar Association, outside the Ekounou tribunal, read out what he called a statement from the country's lawyers explaining why they stopped working. He listed rights violations that included the cruel humiliation of detainees by authorities.
"The appearance of naked detainees at public hearings, the extortion of confessional statements through torture and fraud, prolonged illegal detentions, situations of abusive detentions despite release orders, silence concerning some complaints made by lawyers, the refusal to acknowledge receipt of correspondences with written proof thereof," Seme said.
Members of the Cameroon Bar Association ignored a Sept. 5 resolution adopted during a meeting convened by the government for them to call off the strike action.
Cameroonian President Biya had given instructions for judicial processes to be sped up after a prison protest last July over poor conditions that included overcrowded detention centers.
A delegate at Cameroon's Ministry of Justice, Jean de Dieu Momo, says nearly a million cases that were to be heard in courts all over the country this week have been affected. He offered reassurances to the lawyers, saying the government has called on the military, the police and others in the judicial system to immediately address the lawyers' concerns.
"It is our job to make sure that the lawyers are independent, working freely without any disturbance from anyone. Lawyers, magistrates, military, people involved with security are together to work, to find out sustainable solutions," Momo said.
Government officials expect the lawyers to call off their action soon.
Pierre Bayo, political analysts and lecturer at the University of Yaounde says the lawyers' strike may affect the national dialogue Biya announced Sept. 10 to resolve issues in his country, which is in the midst of a separatist conflict that pits its French and English-speaking populations against each other.
He says most of the lawyers who initiated the strike had defended separatist leaders who had been sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal and also Maurice Kamto, the man who claims he won last year's elections a victory he alleges was stolen by Biya.
"Besides the Anglophone problem today, even more acrimonious in this country is the Kamto political leadership," Bayo said.
Many had expected Kamto - who is now facing eight charges amounting to treason at a military tribunal in Yaounde - and some separatist leaders to be granted clemency by Biya to take part in the national dialogue. Biya declined, saying justice would take its course.
Source: VOA
Get a daily dose of Kenya Star news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Kenya Star.
More InformationSince September, the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened, infecting close to 100 million people, costing more than ...
Johannesburg [South Africa], January 27 (ANI): Cricket South Africa (CSA) interim board chairman Judge Yacoob has stepped down following the ...
New York [US], January 27 (ANI): TS Tirumurti, permanent representative of India to the United Nations on Tuesday announced a ...
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange index extended declines for a second day, falling 0.2%, amid weakness in BHP and Anglo American ...
The global e-commerce operator makes up almost a fifth of the bourse.Naspers spun off most of its assets into Amsterdam-listed ...
Dubai [UAE], January 27 (ANI): South Africa opener Laura Wolvaardt has moved up two places to a career-best seventh position ...
New Delhi [India], January 27 (ANI): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said, it has taken up the investigation of ...
Islamabad [Pakistan], January 27 (ANI): A Pakistani pilot has claimed that he spotted a very shiny, unidentified flying object (UFO) ...
New York [US], January 27 (ANI): TS Tirumurti, permanent representative of India to the United Nations on Tuesday announced a ...
Islamabad [Pakistan], January 27 (ANI): Malaysia on Wednesday released a Pakistan International Airlines' (PIA) plane which was seized after the ...
Tel Aviv [Israel], January 27 (ANI/Sputnik): Iran is negotiating the procurement of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 and the ...
Chandigarh [India], January 27 (ANI): Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said that India needs clear policy and ...