Douala: Man detained for allegedly criticising Biya regime.

The Guardian Post gathered that the man, identified as Patrick Noutang, was thrown into the confinement centre on pre-trial detention, August 18. 

Noutang, it is alleged, was picked up by police officers of the Douala Central Police Station N^o2, on August 13. 

This was after an argument sparked out between clients at a beer parlour over the political and social state of affairs in Cameroon.

During the debate, Noutang allegedly condemned the bad governance of the Biya regime for the past 40 years. 

He is said to have cited the rising unemployment amongst youth, inflation, human rights violation, economic hardship and insecurity that continue to mar the Biya administration.

Speaking to Douala-based television channel, Equinoxe TV, the senior brother of the accused, Desire Noutang A. Nkemy, narrated that “…he was trying to say that the country is not moving on well. That he graduated with a degree but was jobless…”.

In a drunken state, the boy allegedly claimed that disorder will prevail in the country during the next presidential election.

“Being drunk, he said they will disturb the country...other clients asked him if he belongs to the Ambazonia group and without being conscious of what he was saying, he said, ‘Yes’,” Noutang’s elder brother added.

The family member, however, stressed that their brother has no links with the separatist fighters in the North West and South West regions.

Human rights activists denounce arrest

Some human rights activists have decried the arbitrary arrest and incarceration of the citizen for expressing his views on the situation of the country.

Barrister Fabien Kegne, lawyer at the Cameroon Bar, has said the accused has “no criminal record or factual links with the separatist activities in the restive North West and South West regions”. 

Going by him, the continuous detention of Patrick Noutang would mean the institutionalisation of a policing state in Cameroon where no one can freely express his/her views on issues without fear of being arrested. 

The rights defender further criticised the trial of civilians before military courts, which he insisted is in violation of the African Charter on Human and People Rights as well as several other international charters which Cameroon is signatory to. 

Arrested and confined at the Douala Central Police Station N^o2 on August 13, Patrick Noutang is said to have been transferred to the Littoral Regional Police Investigation Division, few days after. 

On August 18, the 31-year-old was placed on pre-trial detention at the New Bell prison. This was at the instance of the State Prosecutor for the Littoral Region.

Sources at the Douala Central Police Station N^o2 confirmed to Equinoxe TV that the young Cameroonian and holder of a Baccalaureate Certificate, was detained as a preventive measure based on his declarations. 

Revisiting similar cases 

On October 5, 2021, a youngster, identified as Brice Hilaire Ndiffo, was reportedly sentenced to 30-months imprisonment for insulting President Paul Biya. 

The young man, in his 20s, was sentenced by a court in Bafang, chief town of the Upper Nkam Division of the West region. This was after he was found guilty of “contempt of the President of the Republic”. 

Hilaire Ndiffo had been arrested on August 7, in Kekem, by security forces and only received his sentence after spending two months on pre-trial detention. 

A similar case is said to have occurred on June 17, 2021, when some three banana plantation workers of the Plantation Haute Penja, PHP, were slammed a one-year prison sentence each.

The young labourers; Ytembe Bonda Clémence, Wameni André Boris and Kamou Wouwe Flavy, were ‘found guilty’ of insulting President Paul Biya.

They were sentenced by the Magistrate Court in Mbanga, Moungo Division of the Littoral Region.

The boys, said to be in their 30s, had reportedly been arrested on June 10 after they appeared in a video that went viral on social media raging insults at the Head of State and top ministers. 

They had also accused ministers of syphoning COVID-19 funds at the detriment of millions of Cameroonians living in porous conditions.