Efforts made by the Cameroon Bar to obtain the release of detained human rights lawyer have yielded fruits. The detained lawyer of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and others was granted bail Wednesday 9 June 2021 by the prosecutor of the Yaounde Military Tribunal.
“The Cameroon Bar has just obtained the release of Barrister Amungwa Nicodemus! Signed as guarantor, the President of the Bar, Claire Atangana Bikoua, Barrister Pierre Robert Fojou representative of the President of Centre South East and Barrister Daniel Ngos, Deputy Secretary of the Bar,” read a statement from lawyers, which confirmed the release.
Before his release, Ilaria Allegrozzi, Senior Central Africa Researcher of international rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had in a report disclosed that he was held on accounts of “bogus terrorism charges”.
The HRW report revealed that he was arrested by elements of the national Gendarmerie 31 May 2021 at the Groupement Territorial de la Gendarmerie in Yaoundé, while he was assisting a client. The report cited Amungwa’s lawyers as saying that the Amungwa criminal procedure had been breached in his client’s case, while the gendarme in charge of the investigation seized his phone without a warrant, claiming Amungwa had taken photographs at the facility.
“While searching for the alleged photographs, the gendarme found other photographs that recorded alleged military abuses in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions and arrested Amungwa,” the report cited the Amungwa’s lawyers as saying.
“Amungwa’s arrest is a direct attack on the legal profession. His arbitrary detention reveals a system geared towards stifling and undermining the role and activities of lawyers involved in key human rights cases,” HRW report quoted Ayukotang Ndep Nkongho, one of Amungwa’s lawyers as saying.
It further revealed that he was transferred to the Service Central des Recherches Judiciaires (SCRJ), at the State Defense Secretariat (SED). The report states that the Yaoundé military court prosecutor has rejected Amungwa’s lawyers’ request for bail and returned the case to the SCRJ for “relevant checks” despite the visit of the head Cameroon bar association, demanding his release.
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