The Member of Parliament, MP, for Lebialem constituency in the Southwest Province, Hon. Bernard Foju, has said over 40 percent of prisoners in the country will be released when the bill on criminal procedure code finally becomes law.Hon. Foju made the statement while appreciating the provisions of the bill in a chat with The Post, Tuesday, June 21. Government tabled the bill No 775/PJL/AN in a plenary sitting on June 12.

"When the bill shall take effect, there shall be the presumption of innocence and many people who are awaiting trial in our prisons shall be released," Foju said. He said the bill seems to be the best thing that has happened to the country's legal system because it will harmonise both the common law and the civil law systems.

He said cross-examination, which is a virtue in the common law, would be adopted in the harmonisation. Foju said reports from gendarmes in the civil law system would no longer be considered as the gospel truth. Accordingly, anybody who presents a report in court will be cross-examined in order to decipher the truth.

The MP observed that the spirit of the law indicates that the burden of proof will be on the accuser and not on the accused person.Even though Foju lauded the principle of cross-examination, he said it would not be necessary in every case.

"It will be a waste of time for one to cross-examine a deaf and dumb or a mad man," he said. He added that in most cases, cross-examination is what brings out the truth in court.

Foju, who is the Secretary of the Parliamentary Group of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, CPDM, said when the bill becomes law, it will no longer be the dual system of the common and civil laws but the Cameroon system.