Cameroon: Military Court merges Balla and Co case with that involving 27 others

The Yaounde military Tribunal has merged the case involving members of the Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and another involving 27 people arrested in Connection with the Anglophone crisis.

The issue which came up last month in court was brought by the state prosecutor who believed that the Balla and Co affair and that of the other arrested youths had similar charges and in order not to waste time repeating the same issue, it was proper to join both cases. But the defense counsel led by Barristers Eta Bisong Junior, Ben Muna and Maurice Kamto said it was irrational to do so since some of the people arrested had nothing to do with the charges levied on Balla and co.

Both parties arrived the court determined to press their various positions to the extreme and the proceedings did not disappoint. While the prosecuting bench advocated that the matter be joint, the Defence counsel mounted stiff opposition citing violations of various sections of the Criminal Procedue code. However, all attempts to convince the presiding judge, Colonel Abega Eko Eko not merge both cases fell on deaf ears, as after 15 mins of legal punches ruled that the cases be merged.

This means that when trial resumes on April 27, there will be just one case. Lawyers of the Defence counsel have described the moves as outrageous and a miscarriage of justice. Since innocent Cameroonians will suffer for what they don't know about. It should be recalled that most of these youths were arbitrarily arrested with trumped up charges of terrorism, secession, insurrection, hostility against the nation amongst others hanging on their heads.

The decision comes a day after 10 other Anglophones including two journalists were transferred to the Kondengui Central prison after 45 days at the Yaoundé judicial police. While their charges have not been made known, it likely that they could be related to those we already and so we could have at least 40 Anglophones appear in court on April 27.