Strike Aftermath: Lawyers Foil Plot to Sentence 40 Arrested Youths in Cameroon

By Retsim Smada
The Vanguard

A battery of lawyers in Fako Division, lead by Eta-Bisong Junior, stormed the Buea magistrates’
court, March 3, and raised an objection to attempts by the bench to charge, try and sentence same day, youths accused of taking part in the last week’s nationwide strike.

The Vanguard learnt that instructions came in from Yaounde that the youth, arrested during the nationwide strike from February 24-25, be sentenced like their counterparts in Yaounde and Douala, who faced kangaroo courts and were sentenced to two years in prison each.
It is alleged that the judges were quickly rallied to try the youths and sentence them, according to
instructions from Yaounde.

The lawyers learnt about the matter which the state council for Buea wanted heared that day, after the courts had risen and lawyers retired for the day. When they got wind of the matter, all of them rallied and converged on the court premises. When they expressed their desire to appear for defense, the judges reportedly appealed that the matter be heard in chambers. Lawyers Blaise Berinyuy argued that the matter, which has been branded criminal, could not be heard in chambers but in the open court.

Then the bench went into a conclave from which it filtered that they decided that, since they were 16 out of the 40 accused youths present, each magistrate should be assigned three or four youths so as to thrash the matter fast as allegedly instructed by Yaounde.

A sitting judge does not receive instructions; it is either Cameroon is a state of law as the Head of State stated the other day, or it is not, Lawyer Julius Oben argued.

After the meeting, which held for over one and a half hours, the state Council came into the court-room and asked that the accused youths should answer their names as the court clerk called them out, so as to spilt them up into groups to be heard in different court rooms and by different judges.

The youths did not heed. Eta-Bisong argued that the youths were arrested and charged with the same offence in the same jurisdiction. When the offence is indivisible, the accused persons must be tried together, Eta-Bisong charged. Apparently, in anger, the State Counsel Suh ordered the youths to be remanded into custody.

The law says the accused must be given three days to prepare his or her defense. How can they want to charge them here and now and hear the matter here and now? Barrister Berinyuy quipped.

The Secretary General of the National Human Rights and Freedoms Commission for the South West Province, Christopher Tambe Tiku, held that: if that is done it will ruin the reputation of the judges and the judiciary. The rule of the law must be respected. At the instructions of the State Counsel, the court wardens and police ordered the youths into a waiting police station wagon and it zoomed off. A country that prides itself as a state of law must be seen as respecting the law. The youths have a vibrant advocacy. The fight for human rights must prevail and I am going to champion that fight, swore Eta-Bisong.

Lawyers and relatives of the accused suspected that the bench might sneak back and hear the matter overnight and decided to keep vigil. No date has been fixed for the matter. Members of the
bar have revealed that they would be vigilant to see to it that the rule of law prevails.