Summary of the Complaint
- On 26 July 2012, the Secretariat of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Secretariat) received from Mr Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara, of Cameroonian nationality, a Complaint submitted pursuant to Article 55 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter).
- The Complaint was submitted against the Republic of Cameroon (the Respondent State or Cameroon), a State Party to the African Charter¹.
- The Complainant submits that between 1997 and 2007 when he occupied several ministerial posts in the Government of Cameroon, he received and implemented instructions for which he was accused of embezzlement. After being held in custody on 1 August 2008 by the judicial police in Yaoundé, he was handed over to the State Counsel of the Yaoundé High Court on 6 August 2008. On the same day, he was charged, detained and imprisoned at the Yaoundé Central Prison.
- The Complainant was indicted on five counts, including the embezzlement or attempted embezzlement, in collaboration with other individuals, of huge sums of money in connection with the purchase of a presidential plane and other related transactions. The Complainant submits that he first appeared before a judge in June 2009, after close to a year following his detention.
- The Complainant further submits that on 30 September 2009, the examining magistrate brought a sixth charge against him for misappropriation of public
¹ The Republic of Cameroon ratified the African Charter on 20 June 1989.
funds and issued a new remand warrant. He avers that as a result of this warrant, his detention was extended to 30 March 2011 whereas the statutory detention period was due to expire on 6 February 2010, in accordance with the Cameroonian criminal law which provides for a maximum pre-trial detention period of eighteen (18) months. At the Complainant's request, the Investigation Chamber of the Court of Appeal quashed the sixth charge and issued an order on 3 December 2009 for further investigation.
- On 18 December 2009, the examining magistrate again indicted the Complainant and issued a new remand warrant for misappropriation of funds allocated for the purchase of a presidential plane. The Complainant contends that this new indictment was for the same facts on which the Investigation Chamber's annulment ruling had been made.
- A petition for the annulment of the new indictment was dismissed by the examining magistrate whose decision was upheld by the Investigation Chamber. The Complainant contends that as a result of the new indictment, his detention was extended to 18 June 2011 whereas the statutory maximum detention period should have expired on 6 February 2010.