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Cameroon: Recent Uprisings in Cameroon - Amadou Ali Clarifies Court Judgements
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
7 April 2008
Posted to the web 7 April 2008
Richard Kwang Kometa
The Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals gave a press briefing on Friday to situate the court judgements.
Following the waves of violence that rocked the country in February, the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Amadou Ali, granted a press briefing on Friday 4 March 2008 to present the court proceedings that have taken place as of 25 March this year.
He stated that of the 1671 arrests made within the period of the upheaval, 729 people have been condemned to either pay fines or serve prison terms ranging from three months to six years. Out of the number condemned, 466 had lodged an appeal while 251 of those arrested were simply liberated for insufficient evidence and 157 were still awaiting trial because either they or their lawyers presented procedural problems that the courts needed to examine.
Amadou Ali who was accompanied by the Minister of Communications, Jean-Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, the Minister Delegate in Charge of Justice, Maurice Kamto, as well as the Secretary of State for Prisons Administration, Emmanuel Ngafeeson, pointed out that despite claims that he downplayed the figures of the arrests during his first press outing on 6 March 2008 following the unrests; the International Red Cross was invited to be associated with the government in following up the situation of those detained for questioning. He agued that all those arrested were given a fair trial with their lawyers present to defend them.
The Vice Prime Minister gave out the statistics in all five provinces that were affected by the upheavals and noted that the difference in the figure for those either arrested, detained or condemned was due to the fact that some of those concerned had to be release almost immediately by authorities once it was established that they were not linked to the wave of violent destructions that cut across five provinces in the country.
Amadou Ali began the briefing by saluting the approach taken by the Head of State, Paul Biya, to bring back calm in the country and said his media outing this time was not only to inform the public but also to ensure transparent public information on the situation of those arrested after the unrests. No such situation existed as to the reduction of figures of those arrested within the strike period, Minister Amadou Ali insisted noting that the defence counsel fully played its role during the court trials of all those arrested.
He said there was fairness and equity in the judgement adding that the law was even clement to those arrested given the level of destruction that went on in localities affected by the strike action.
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The Head of State, he announced, had given instructions that recruitments be made within the judiciary sector for the next three years so as to make up for the lack of personnel.
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