A great recent article by Lewis Mudge, the Central Africa Director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch:
Cameroon’s High Court refused to release opposition leader Maurice Kamto, as well as six of his supporters, who were arrested in January on politically motivated charges. The Mfoundi High Court, located in Cameroon’s political capital, Yaoundé, made this decision following a habeas corpus request filed by the detainees’ defence lawyers.
Kamto and his party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), claim they won the country’s 2018 elections, although the official results say the current President Paul Biya – in power for 36 years – won the vote. They were detained as a part of a massive government crackdown on demonstrations and political activities, including the arrest over 200 people on January 26. Since then, political activists have been regularly threatened and harassed.
Kamto and his six supporters are charged with a number of offenses linked to their rejection of the election results, including hostility against the homeland and threats to public order and rebellion. These arrests highlight the tightening political space in Cameroon as well as the impunity with which police can disregard the law.
Kamto was arrested without a warrant on January 28 in Douala and held for 15 days at the headquarters of the Special Operations Groups (Groupement spécial d’opérations, GSO), which is not gazetted as a detention facility for those awaiting trial.
See the full article at Human Rights Watch.
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