By Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Mimi Mefo Info
Published on 2024-02-13 10:43:56
Already sentenced by a first instance of justice, the Criminal Chamber of Appeal and Review of Geneva has just confirmed the guilt of six bodyguards of Paul Biya. The information was revealed on Monday by the Tribune de Genève.
Indeed, the strongmen of the Cameroonian president were accused of assaulting an RTS journalist in 2019 in front of the Hotel Intercontinental, where the head of state was staying.
“The sentences that were imposed on appeal are the same as those that had been pronounced by the Police Court, except for one of the defendants,” said lawyer Robert Assaël, a lawyer for one of the security agents.
A few years ago, in February 2019 precisely, the bodyguards had received suspended pecuniary sentences in the first instance. At the very beginning of the procedure of this case, which has caused a lot of ink and saliva to be spilled on the diplomatic level, the prosecutor had been a little more severe towards the defendants than the Police Court and had, by way of order, imposed prison sentences, still with suspension. Specifically, “five defendants had been found guilty of coercion and unlawful appropriation” and had been sentenced to a fine with suspension, just like a sixth who was “solely convicted for unlawful appropriation.”
The case had gone up to the Federal Court. The bodyguards of the Cameroonian president argued to benefit from immunity. A view that the judges of Mon Repos had rejected, considering, in view of the circumstances, that the agents had not acted that day for the security of Paul Biya.
One of the condemned bodyguards continues to affirm that he acted that day in the exercise of his function and for the security of the Cameroonian president. “The agents were on high alert, especially since a few weeks before, in Geneva, an unauthorized demonstration had turned into a riot with two injured, and two days before, activists had ransacked Cameroonian embassies in France and Germany. Freedom of the press is not at issue,” argued the lawyer, who intends to examine the opportunity to appeal to the Federal Court again.
It was in 2019 that Adrien Krausse, a journalist at RTS, was assaulted in front of the hotel. The media man had been roughed up in front of the Hôtel Intercontinental while covering a gathering of elements of the Anti-Sardinards Brigade (BAS) in front of this luxury hotel where Paul Biya had taken up residence. He had been immobilized and slightly injured while the bodyguards took various personal effects, including his phone.
The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs had subsequently summoned the Cameroonian ambassador to Bern to explain “that such incidents were unacceptable and that freedom of the press is protected and must be respected.”
At the time, this case had prompted protests from the Swiss Confederation, which had reminded the Cameroonian ambassador in Bern of the respect for freedom of the press. On the airwaves of RTS, Antonio Hodgers, president of the Geneva government, had also considered the event to be “totally unacceptable.”
Joseph Essama
Read the original article(French) on Mimi Mefo Info
