Abdul Karim’s fate hangs in the balance as he makes second court appearance today

Detained Muslim scholar and peace advocate, Abdul Karim Ali, appears before the Examining Magistrate of the Yaounde Military Court this Monday, April 10, to answer secession-related charges.

Karim will be appearing alongside two others, also arrested last year, to answer four charges: Hostilities against the fatherland; secession; failure to report and rebellion.

Today’s court session comes nearly a month after the first session on March 23 failed to hold because the judge was absent.

The Muslim scholar was arrested by gendarmes in Bamenda on August 11, 2023, and detained incommunicado for several months.

He was later transfered to the State Secretariat of Defence for the Gendarmerie in Yaounde where he spent a couple of months before being taken to the Yaounde Central Prison on February 2.

Abdul Karim’s lead defence counsel, Barrister Amungwa Tanyi, said he was only charged in March 2023, after he had spent 200 days behind bars.

He is among hundreds of English-speaking Cameroonians who have been slammed terrorism or secession-related charges by the State for expressing their views about the ongoing armed conflict in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

Karim was arbitrarily arrested days after he made a video criticising the activities of a military officer popularly called Moja Moja, who has been accused of torturing and abusing several civilians in the Southwest Region.

By Tata Mbunwe