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Cameroon: Court Rejects Bail Demand for Abah Abah
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The Post (Buea)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Kini Nsom & Christopher Jator Njechu
The Mfoundi High Court, May 8, rejected a motion that lawyers filed recently demanding that their client, former Economy and Finance Minister, Polycarpe Abah Abah, be released on bail.
Abah Abah who is charged with the embezzlement of public funds was whisked off to the judicial police on March 31 and was later taken to the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison. It was on this premise that his lawyers submitted that his arrest and detention is illegal because they constitute a flagrant violation of the new Criminal procedure code.
In a submission, one of the defence layers, Barrister Marion Nko'o argued that Abah Abah's detention is at variance with the principle of habeas corpus that provides the presumption of innocence until a suspect is tried and found guilty by a competent court of law. The lawyer said it is unacceptable that the judicial authorities first took Abah Abah before struggling to make preliminary inquiries in order to beef up the charges against him.
While asking for bail, Abah Abah's lawyer argued that the former Minister is a prominent personality with a permanent residence and should not be kept in jail when he has not yet been sentenced. According to the defence counsels, Abah Abah is in very poor health condition that aggravates every day.
In addition, one of the defence lawyers said Abah Abah was detained without being registered as stipulated by the law, and, according to them, this gives them (lawyers) the right to indict the administration should the detention turn abusive.
This is the second time Abah Abah's lawyers are demanding his release after that of April 24.
After examining the motion, the Mfoundi High Court, presided at by Justice Marie Noah Ebella, rejected it. The court said Abah Abah is in preventive detention so that preliminary investigations about him should go on hitch-free. Justice Noah said the submission of deprive in their motion for bail did hold much legal water because even the new criminal procedure code still provides for preventive detention.
The request for bail comes a month since Abah Abah and the former Minister of Public Health, Urbain Olanguena Awono, here taken to prison on April.While Olanguena Awono will also appear in court soon to answer charges of embezzlement, one of his collaborators, Bruno Elobo Ndzono, who is the General Manager of the INAGEL Cameroon- IMPOREX company, has refused accusations that he embezzled FCFA 600 million in the Minister Public Health through take contracts.
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In a press briefing in Yaounde over the week end, Elobo Ndzono accused the Minister of Justice, Amadou Ali, for using the anti-corruption to settle scores. He said even though he was interrogated by the police he is ignorant as to what the whole issue is about.
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