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19, September 2017
Lord Justice Ayah Paul speaks of his arrest; Says Cameroon in need of a truth and reconciliation Committee 0
Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine has broken the silence he maintained after his release from prison on Sunday, September 17, 2017, on the TV program Geopolis of the Equinoxe Television channel. Ayah Paul made an overview of his arrest, the conditions of his detention, his release, the reparations demanded by his party and the Southern Cameroons crisis.
The magistrate accused the Biya Francophone regime of having contributed to the deteriorating state of his health. “It is probably my stay at the SED (Secretariat of State for Defense) that caused me damage. I can say irreparable damage. Currently I can not see anything with my left eye. All of a sudden, I became a cardiac patient, ” Ayah pointed out.
Ayah Paul Abine revealed that he spent his first night in a small cell without window or mattress, a situation that worsened his health. “If I returned to this cell even for 30 minutes, I will die,” said Ayah Paul Abine, who added that in his new cell he was given “a semblance of a mattress with a thickness of 5 cm”.
The former Supreme Court judge regretted that during his stay at the SED, only one of his colleagues visited him. He said he was abducted from his home on a Saturday night without an arrest warrant and no magistrate reacted. “How can I explain why I stayed in a cell for 223 days and only one magistrate in all of Cameroon had the courage to visit me?” Asks Ayah Paul Abine. The retired magistrate insisted that 80% of Cameroonian magistrates should not be part of the judicial family as “they are all afraid to do their job”.
For Ayah Paul Abine, the arrest of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium was a political affair. Ayah noted that he was not a member of the Consortium but was arrested because he asked for the law to be applied in the case. He called for the establishment of the National Truth and Reconciliation Committee. The Attorney General suggested that arrogance be set aside in dealing with the Southern Cameroons leadership.
By Sama Ernest with files from CIN