Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

An Overview and Full Text (English) of the New Cameroon Penal Code

By Dibussi Tande

President Paul Biya has signed into law, the bill relating to the (new) penal Code (Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016).

Prior to its adoption by Parliament last June, the penal code bill was the target of widespread criticism from legal scholars, the Bar Council, civil society organizations and the general public because of a number of controversial provisions. Specifically targeted was the provision granting government ministers immunity from prosecution, along with other provisions punishing rent defaulters, criminalizing begging and adultery, and maintaining the death penalty.

Full Text (English): Law on the Suppression of Acts of Terrorism in Cameroon

Here is the full text in English of Law No. 2014/028 of 23 December 2014 on the suppression of acts of terrorism:

Members of Cameroon's Rapid Intervention Battalion practice their marksmanships skills (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Elsa Portillo).

CHAPTER 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION I: PURPOSE AND SCOPE

1. This law relates to the suppression of acts of terrorism
2. The provisions of the penal code, the criminal procedure code and the military justice code that are not repugnant to this law shall remain applicable.
3. The offences provided for in this; law shall fall exclusively under the jurisdiction of military tribunals.

The SDF Proposes Bill to Amend Cameroon's Nationality Code; Recognizes Dual Nationality

The opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) has relaunched the acrimonious dual nationality debate in Cameroon by drafting a private members' bill to amend the country’s nationality code adopted in 1968.

While the SDF’s proposed amendments are fairly modest considering widespread calls for a vast overhaul the law, they nonetheless tackle the key issue of dual nationality head-on. In the unlikely event that the amendment becomes the law of the land, “Any Cameroonian citizen who acquires another nationality retains the Cameroonian nationality, except repudiation thereof.”

In the same vein, individuals who previously lost their Cameroonian nationality because the country does not recognize dual citizenship will regain their Cameroonian nationality under this law: "Restoration to [sic] Cameroonian nationality is granted de facto without condition of age or probation, but subject to necessity of proof that the applicant… has been deprived of the Cameroonian nationality as an effect of having willfully acquired or kept a foreign nationality."

Here is the full text of the proposed amendment along with its explanatory statement.

Details of Presidential Decree Outlining Conditions for Reimbursing Embezzled Funds

By Dibussi Tande

On September 4, President Biya signed decree N°2013/288 fixing the modalities for the restitution of misappropriated public property, this, in compliance with Section 18 (3) of Law No.2012/011 of 06 July 2012 to amend and supplement certain provisions of law No.2011/28 of 14 December 2011 to set up a Special Criminal Court which stipulates that: “Modalities for the restitution of the corpus delicti shall be fixed by rules and regulations.”

As a reminder, according to Section 18 (new) of Law No.2012/011 of 06 July 2012,

Ambassador Jackson: Grassroots Mobilization Key to Respect of Human Rights in Cameroon

Excerpt of a speech by US ambassador to Cameroon, Robert P. Jackson, to a gathering of Cameroonian civil society leaders.

"Perhaps it’s a somewhat banal notion, but in the end human rights is not much more than a fancy term for the kind of relationships we’d like to have with our neighbors:  When we do wrong, we must make amends and treat each other fairly; when we disagree, we each speak our mind; when we’re different, we must live and let live."

[...]
In the end, however, my role, and the role of the U.S. Embassy, in the promotion and maintenance of human rights is limited.  For there is no amount of advocacy or support the United States can offer that is more potent or more fundamental for the respect of human rights than grassroots mobilization.  We can talk until we’re blue in the face (trust me, we can, we’re diplomats), but we cannot make changes in this society from the top down.  We can suggest and we can cajole, but only you are capable of truly persuading those around you to be the change they want to see.  Contrary to what conspiracy theorists might tell you, change doesn’t start in my Embassy, it starts in your neighborhoods, your villages, your towns, and your regions.

Justice for Sale or Legal Realpolitik? The Special Criminal Court Sets Legal Precedent in the Yves-Michel Fotso Embezzlement Case

By Dibussi Tande

On January 14, 2013, Cameroon’s Special Criminal Court created legal precedent when it dropped all charges case against Yves-Michel Fotso, the former Camair Director, who was on trial for embezzling 230 million Francs CFA from the Cameroon Airport Management Authority (ADC).

The charges were dropped midway into the trial after Fotso refunded the 230 million Francs CFA he was accused of embezzling. His co-accused, Roger Ntongo Onguene, the former Director General of ADC, who was charged with embezzling an additional 316 million Francs CFA from the authority, is now left to face the music alone.

Cameroon (In)justice: The Case of Michel Thierry Atangana

Update: Earlier today Thierry Atangana and Dr. Titus Edzoa, were each sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison for virtually the same crimes that they had already  served 15 years.

French businessman Michel Thierry Atangana has spent the past 15 years behind bars in Cameroon. In 1997 he was accused of embezzling public funds, put on trial without a lawyer and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

 

A court in the capital Yaoundé will soon decide if he can walk out of prison a free man or remain in his cell for another 15 years. For Mr Atangana’s family, lawyer and many observers of Cameroonian politics, both his trials were purely political.

Source: France 24

In His Own Words: Enoh Meyomesse on Life at Kondengui Central Prison

"My days follow one after the other in a deathly monotony, like the hours on a clock." [Enoh Meyomesse about life behind bars]

The trial of Cameroonian writer Enoh Meyomesse begins at the Yaounde military Court today, August 31, 2012.

Enoh Meyomesse (in blue shirt) with his alleged accomplices

Meyomesse, a founding member of the Cameroon Writers Association, is charged with aggravated theft and the illegal sale of gold. In an article which appeared in the Hufftington Post (Gold, Guns and Books: the Meyomesse Affair), Deji Olukotun sheds light on the origins of what he describes as a “bizarre case”:

An Overview of Cameroon Prison Literature From Albert Mukong to Titus Edzoa

By Dibussi Tande

In the last six months, three former high-ranking government officials currently in jail for a variety of financial crimes have published books about their prison experience. These books also explain their own version of events that landed them in jail, while casting a critical glance at the political system in which they once played pivotal roles.

The courtyard of Kondengui Prison in Yaounde

Prominent among these unlikely authors are two former Secretary-Generals at the Presidency of the Republic, Atangana Mebara and Titus Edzoa, and Nguini Effa, the former Director General of Cameroon Petroleum Depot (SCDP).

Peeking Beneath the Veil of the Albatross: Why Inoni and Marafa are in Jail

By Dibussi Tande

Even though it was not completely unexpected, the arrest of  Chief Inoni Ephraim, former Prime Minister and Head of Government, and Hamidou Marafa Yaya, former Minister of State in Charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, is a bombshell that is still reverberating across the Cameroonian political landscape.

According to reports by the State-owned CRTV, both men had showed up at the offices of investigative judge Pascal Magnaguemabe for what was expected to be a routine encounter, but were instead bundled off to the Kondengui Maximum security prison in the latest chapter of the decade-long probe into the Albatross Affair, or the botched attempt to purchase a brand new aircraft for President Biya – a dizzying fall from grace of two “golden boys” of the Biya regime who were once considered (particularly in the case of Marafa) potential heirs to the octogenarian Paul Biya.

Albatross Affair: A Profile of Ephraim Inoni and Hamidou Marafa

In a Febraury 2007 cable from the US embassy in Yaounde which profiled  "possible successors to President Biya" the then Prime Minister of the Republic, Ephraim Inoni, and the then Minister of State for Territorial Administration, Hamidou Marafa, were classfied under the category of "clean, competent and well-positioned" individuals with a shot at succeeding President Biya. Today, both men are behind bars, accused of embezzlement of state funds in the Albatross saga.

With the benefit of hindsight, let's read what US ambassador Niels Marquardt thought of both men.

Ambassador Mendouga, the Albatross Affair and Life in Kondengui

The Washington Diplomat - VOLUME 17, NUMBER 07. July 2010

“It’s not my official residence on Normanstone Drive, I can tell you that...I’m in a room built for 12 people, with three bunk beds, one on top of the other. For the time being, there are six or seven of us here. We have three boxes for showering and three toilets — one normal Western-style and two Turkish squat toilets.” Jerome Mendouga

After serving for 15 years as Cameroon’s ambassador to the United States, Jerome Mendouga has traded in the comfort of Embassy Row for the confines of Cameroon’s most notorious jail, as he fights to prove his innocence in a domestic scandal that has become the proverbial albatross around the disgraced diplomat’s neck.

Foreign ambassadors, once they finish their tours of duty in Wash ington, often go back home and write books or become private consultants. Others join the faculty of prestigious universities. If they’ve had an especially distinguished track record, they might be named foreign ministers by their country’s president, and — in a few cases — they end up as presidents themselves. Jerome Mendouga’s career took a very different path — taking him all the way
from the comfort of Washington’s Embassy Row to the squalor of Cameroon’s most notorious slammer.

Click here to download article in PDF format (3.62mb)

In His Own Words: Biyiti Essam Explains How State Funds Ended Up in His Personal Bank Account

"I was expecting a treasury check [from the Minister of Finance]... instead, three brawny fellows came into my office with a bag containing 250 millions Fcfa... Tell me, where should I have kept this money? You wanted me to keep the money in my home… for them to to come and knock off my kids before stealing the money?" Biyiti Essam

Jean-Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, Cameroon’s Minister of Communications and government spokesperson (whom his detractors like to refer to as "petit Goebbels") is in hot water. He is accused of diverting 140 million Fcfa, meant to prepare for the Pope’s visit, into his private bank account. There are also questions about the 70 million Fcfa paid to a Gabonese firm to supply four giant screens used during the Pope’s mass in Yaounde. The Minister has already appeared before the state prosecutor. Here are excerpts [in English] of an interview which he gave to the French language daily Le Messager (my translation).

This interview gives us a rare first-hand insight into how government works (or does not work) in Cameroon. Even more significant than the issue of embezzlement, is the realization that neither Cameroon nor the entire CEMAC region seem to have modern financial mechanisms to facilitate the transfer of funds within the country or the entire region - bags and bouncers play the role usually reserved for financial institutions… This story would have been quite hilarious had the stakes not been so high…

SIC Embezzlement Case: Roger Belinga Gets 35-year Jail Sentence

By Tansa Musa

"We hope this case serves as a deterrent to other people in whose hands state property has been entrusted to manage in the general interest, but who very often mistake them for their personal property." Presiding Judge Nnomo Zanga.

YAOUNDE, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A court in Cameroon jailed nine former state employees for between 15 and 35 years on Thursday for embezzlement in a second high-profile case against corrupt members of veteran President Paul Biya's ruling party.

A large group of senior state officials were arrested in February 2006 in a crackdown on graft that Biya ordered under pressure from international donors concerned by widespread corruption in the central African country.

Can Cameroon’s New Criminal Procedure Code Deliver “Justice with a Human Face”?

Dibussi Tande

Cameroon’s much heralded new criminal procedure code went into effect today, January 1, 2007.  Adopted by Parliament in July 2005, the new code is a hybrid system which merges key features of the French Civil law and English Common law systems, along with customary law.

Before the adoption of the new code, criminal procedure was governed in Francophone Cameroon by the French code d’instruction criminelle of February 14 1838 and its subsequent amendments, while in Anglophone Cameroon, it was governed by a variety of common law texts, primarily the Nigerian Criminal Procedure Ordinance of 1958.