Speaking on Radio France Internationale, the popular Cameroon-French writer, who has been known to be at the forefront of Journalist Paul Chouta’s incarceration for close to three years now has suggested that the main thing keeping the journalist in detention till date may not only be her complaint against him, but several other complaints which other persons may have made against him.
“When I get there, I realise it’s not just me. There are several other women who filed complaints for the same reasons – defamation. Paul Chouta is not in Prison because only Calixthe Beyella filed a complaint against him, there are several other complainants,” she made the claims on the Program, ‘Couleurs Tropicales on RFI.
On the programme, Calixthe Beyella equally revealed that Paul Chouta fell prostrate before her and begged for her forgiveness, promising to withdraw all the articles which he had published against her. She claimed that she and Paul Chouta signed an undertaking whereby she was going to withdraw her complaint if Chouta withdrew all he published. She said that the media influencer however went against the agreement and pleaded not guilty in court at the advice of his friends and other journalists.
According to the writer, the Paul Chouta case may well be beyond her reach now as according to her, there are more people involved against him now for defamation of character.
Paul Chouta, prominent online journalist was arrested in 2019 at the orders of the prominent Cameroon-French Novelist, Calixthe Beyella on counts of defamation of character. In a case which warrants maximum of 6 months of jail time if found guilty, the journalist has already spent over three years still in pre-trial detention.
He has reportedly undergone immeasurable tortures at the hands of the security forces. He had equally survived poisoning and recovered from Covid-19 throughout his time at the Yaoundé Kondengui Maximum Security Prison.
“Paul Chouta is not in prison only because I lodged a complaint, several others have too” – Calixthe Beyella
