The detained leaders of the Southern Cameroons revolution are expected in the military tribunal in Yaoundé today, Thursday the 29th of June, 2017. This is the eighth hearing for the Anglophone leaders in a trial that is still dealing with procedural matters. Dr. Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho and Dr. Fontem Neba including radio host Bibixy Mancho have all pleaded not guilty and it is now known that they will remain in prison during the trial as the judges rejected their request for release.

The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium are being prosecuted for hostility against the so-called homeland, indecent assault, rebellion, degradation of public property, looting and coercion of acts of terrorism. The first witnesses will be heard today Thursday 29 June. There are a dozen of them from the Francophone army and gendarmes in the Southwest and North West Regions. Each of these witnesses will be questioned by the prosecutor and then by the defense lawyers.

The Chairman and CEO of the Cameroon Concord News Group, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai was quoted by an Irish newspaper as saying the trial runs the risk of lasting several years. Another prominent Southern Cameroonian personality arrested at the height of the Anglophone uprising, Lord Justice Paul Ayah Abine of the Supreme Court of Cameroon was hastily retired three weeks ago by the CPDM Higher Judicial Council and detained since the end of January at the Secretary of State for Defense.

His lawyers have demanded his acquittal by stating that his arrest did not take place under the conditions prescribed by law. A first request was rejected, and the second is still unanswered. Nearly two months after the lawyers’ appeal, the Supreme Court now says it has still not received the case file.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Intelligence Report