Ayah Paul refuses to be interrogated by junior officers

Ayah Paul Abine, serving Advocate General of the Supreme Court of Cameroon

The defence counsel of Justice Ayah Paul Abine, the Advocate General of the Supreme Court and Chairman of the opposition Popular Action Party, PAP, has vowed that his client would not give any statement to interrogators at the SED. Lawyer Ndong maintains that his client’s arrest didn’t follow due process as provided for by the law and so he would not answer any questions from investigators.

                “Ayah has no statement to offer to judicial officers who are his subordinates. He will only speak when he is charged in court or a panel of judges is constituted to hear him according to the regulations in force,” Barrister Ndong told Cameroon Journal Friday.

                According to the lawyer, Ayah was not arrested, but abducted.  He argues that the procedure to hear a sitting judge as outlined in the country’s Criminal Procedure Code was not followed.

                We learned when a team of investigating officers visited Ayah for questioning two days after his arrest he refused to talk with them.

                The team was comprised of a representative of the judicial police, a representative from the Ministry of Justice, a representative of the military prosecutor and an official of the SED.

                Ayah is quoted as saying he cannot give statements to judicial officers he is supposed to be schooling. He said what mattered to him at that moment was his health.

                Barrister Ndong said Ayah will only talk when the Attorney General of the Supreme Court constitutes a panel of three judges equal or superior to their client’s rank. Should that not happen, the defense counsel added, then Ayah will talk only in court.

                “We don’t yet know the person who ordered for our client’s arrest, nor the charges brought against him. He is steadfast to remain mute…If they continue in illegality they will take him to the military prosecutor where he still would not talk. He will only do the talking when the matter is pushed to court,” the lawyer explained.

                At the time of this report no officials of the military tribunal or the SED were available to comment.

                Though Ayah’s charges are not yet known, it is speculated that he would be given the same terrorism charge like the arrested Consortium leaders.

                It should be recalled Ayah was arrested in his residence in Yaounde and whisked off to the SED. He had initially refused to go with two elements from the SED who had come to take him from his office.

                Ayah’s arrest came in the wake of a crackdown by government on Anglophone ‘agitators’ in the North West and South West Regions.

                Both Anglophone and Francophone lawyers mobilized to freely defend the Anglophone leaders arrested in relation to the ongoing crisis in NW and SW.