Judicial and political harassment of attorney Alice Nkom

STATEMENT ON THE JUDICIAL AND POLITICAL HARASSMENT OF ATTORNEY ALICE NKOM.

Barrister Alice NKOM is an eminent figure in the public life of our country.

She is fighting many battles. We do not share all these battles, and it is not all her battles that are at issue today. However, Bar. Alice NKOM is an important voice in the public arena of our country.

It is therefore unacceptable that she should be the object of the judicial and political harassment that the authorities are currently inflicting on her. We cannot stand by and watch this happen.

Since November 2018, hundreds of CRM militants have suffered enough from the authoritarian and judicial excesses of the CPDM regime for such administrative and judicial oppression to alert us. Numerous CRM militants have been arbitrarily arrested, savagely tortured, illegally detained, tried and heavily convicted by special courts: military tribunals.

This regime disregards the Opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) formulated in November 2022, which considers all decisions handed down by military magistrates under orders in our cases to be arbitrary and illegal, even though the Opinion in question is enforceable against it.

Despite this important opinion from a United Nations human rights treaty body, dozens of our activists are still being held in prison.

As the presidential election draws nearer, the lives of Cameroonians who dare to raise their voices against the destructive excesses of the regime are under threat. These include bishops and other members of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon, pastors, journalists and columnists such as Messrs. Haman MANA, J.Rémy NGONO, numerous whistle-blowers, musicians such as Gaston Philippe ABÉ ABÉ known as ‘General Valsero’, Simon LONGKANA AGNO, alias ‘Longuè Longuè’ as well as many other artists, Doctor Aristide MONO, Professor Aimé BONNY, the writer Calixte BEYALA, and many other more or less famous people. Many of these compatriots are or have been forced into exile.

We must remember that all the misfortunes of the MRC and its militants began the day after the presidential election of 07 October 2018 with the filing, on 9 October, by the same mysterious so-called civil society organisation called ‘Observatoire du Développement Sociétal’, headed by a certain Maurice KOULOU ENGOULOU, of an absurd complaint at the Yaoundé Military Court against myself and the MRC for ‘sedition of call to popular uprising’.

The same criminal organisation is being used today by the regime to initiate extravagant criminal proceedings against Me Alice NKOM.

As if by chance, this criminal organisation only operates in the wake of presidential elections.

Faced with this situation, the CRM stands in solidarity with Bar. Alice NKOM who, in this particular case, is, like her peaceful activists, a victim of persecution.

This is why I have asked the Collectif Me Sylvain SOUOP to contact Me Alice NKOM, in order to take part, pro bono, in her defence.

The regime must understand that a judicial front of its victims has now been formed and will fight ruthlessly to make Cameroon a State governed by the rule of law, which respects the laws of the Republic as well as its freely agreed international commitments.

Signed in Yaoundé on 4 January 2025

Maurice KAMTO National President of the CRM, Former Political Prisoner