Stand up For Cameroon accuses Douala Military Tribunal of injustices

Five members of the group “Stand Up For Cameroon” detained at New Bell Central Prison will appear before the military tribunal on the 19th of May 2021 for the third hearing since their arrest on Friday, September 18, 2020.

On Wednesday, May 12, 2021, magistrates at the Douala Military Tribunal declared that the boys were absent in court reason why they had to postpone the trial to June 9, 2021.

A claim that has been described as “false” by the group Stand Up For Cameroon(SUFC) .

In a publication, Frank Essi, one of the leaders of SUFC says “the boys were in the court even before the arrival of the magistrates of the court. This is truly a scandal and it is a blatant denial of justice by the court”.

During the first trial of the boys on the 14th of April 2021, SUFC says the hearing couldn’t take place because magistrates claimed the Court was “…not regularly constituted.”

With all these, SUFC has concluded the court is using strategies to deny justice to people that “…were arbitrarily arrested…”.

The boys in detention include Tehle Membou,Collins Nana,Moussa Bello,Mira Angoung and Etienne Nstama. They were arrested at about 6:50 pm on Friday, 18th September 2020 as they left a meeting at Cameroon People Party headquarters in Bali Douala and were heading home.

In an earlier statement by Edith Kah Walla, member of the group Stand Up For Cameroon, in an audience granted to them by the minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji stated that the boys “…were in a wrong place at a wrong time”.

The five boys are accused of conspiracy to commit revolution and insurrection, offenses that if found guilty for, can earn them life imprisonment.

SUFC has over the past months called for the release of the boys. Members of SUFC see the continuous detention of the boys as a means to quell non-violence activism in Cameroon.

Mbatho Ntan.

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