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Lawyers defending detained Muslim scholar, Abdul Karim Ali, have raised an alarm about his deteriorating health condition, as he crosses 160 days in pretrial detention.
Barrister Amungwa Tanyi, his lead defence lawyer, told MMI Karim’s health is failing day by day. He said the Muslim scholar has become slim and that “all is not well with him.”
A video of Abdul Karim that circulated online on Wednesday, January 18, showed him looking old and frail: he looked like a caricature of his previous self.
Barrister Tamfu Richard, one of Karim’s defence lawyers, believes the government wants to suffer his client to death under poor detention conditions at the State Secretariat of Defence, SED, in Yaounde where he is being detained.
“The worst of it all are the conditions of detaining an accused person no matter the offense for which he is accused of,” Barrister Tamfu told MMI.
“The Cameroonian Government already know the sentence it will inflict on him and they are doing everything to kill him even before the date of sentencing,” he added.
Abdul Karim Ali, has not been formerly charged of any crime after he was arrested without a warrant by the gendarme in Bamenda on August 11, 2022.
He was arrested few days after he publicly criticised military officer, Moja Moja, and his government-backed militia for torturing civilians in Cameroon’s Southwest region.
“The last time he appeared before the state prosecutor of the military tribunal Yaounde was last Thursday. His case is still at the level of police investigation, thus he has not been forwarded to open court for trial,” Barrister Amungwa Tanyi told MMI on Wednesday, Jan. 18.
Calls for unconditional release ignored
The government has continued to ignore calls by rights groups who are asking for the release of the 41-year-old Muslim scholar.
The latest of such calls came from Amnesty International, which, in a release on December 22, 2022, called for his unconditional release.
“In the absence of information from the justice system what we know is that Abdul Karim Ali was arrested after he denounced torture committed and broadcast online by the leader of a pro-government militia in the South-west region of the country. If this is the only reason for his arrest he should be release immediately and unconditionally since his detention would stem from solely the exercise of his right to freedom of expression,” Amnesty International wrote.
The organisation said the procedure of arrest and detention of Abdul Karim violated international and regional human rights norms.
“He was detained in a cell with no window, deprived of food and water for several days, and had to use a single bucket both as toilet and for bathing,” Amnesty International wrote, referring to Karim’s detention conditions at the Bamenda Gendarmerie Legion where he was first detained.
Abdul Karim spent 72 days in this nasty cell before being transfered to the SED in Yaounde.
“In fact starting from his arrest and to his detention at the State Secretariat of Defence (SED), which is not a conventional detention centre, Cameroonian authorities and its judicial system have violated all national and international rules applicable in criminal prosecution,” defence lawyer Tamfu Richard said.
By Tata Mbunwe
