(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 22 March 2002 letter to President Paul Biya by Eugene Schoulgin, the International Chair of the WiPC of International PEN: S.E. Paul Biya Président de la République Palais de l’Unité 1000 Yaoundé Cameroon Fax: +237 233 022 E-mail: celcom@camnet.cm 22 March 2002 Re: Georges Baongla Dear President Biya, I […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 22 March 2002 letter to President Paul Biya by Eugene Schoulgin, the International Chair of the WiPC of International PEN:
S.E. Paul Biya
Président de la République
Palais de l’Unité
1000
Yaoundé
Cameroon
Fax: +237 233 022
E-mail: celcom@camnet.cm
22 March 2002
Re: Georges Baongla
Dear President Biya,
I write to you as International Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN, a global writers’ organisation with centres in ninety-five countries, to express my grave concern over the case of the imprisoned journalist Georges Baongla.
As you may know, Georges Baongla – the publication director of the weekly Le Démenti – has been given a five-year sentence on corruption charges. He was first arrested on 22 August 2001 for “publication of false news”. The detention was linked with an article published on 14 August in Le Démenti which implicated Minister of the Economy and Finances Michel Meva’a M’Eboutou
in an embezzlement case. Baongla was held briefly on accusations of “breach of trust” for allegedly not paying a loan back to the nephew of a government minister, a charge the journalist denied.
Baongla was arrested again on 9 January 2002. Two days later he appeared before a judge and was transferred to Nkondengui central prison in the capital Yaoundé. He had been tried in absentia in October 2001 but only informed about this trial after it had taken place. He had been found guilty of an alleged extortion of ten million CFA francs from an official at the Ministry of the Economy and Finances. However, according to the editorial board of Le Démenti, the charges were baseless. They also claimed that Baongla had been persecuted on account of a series of articles in the newspaper denouncing financial malpractice by the Minister of the Economy and Finances.
Without wishing to judge the merits of the case itself, there are several questions hanging over the judicial procedure surrounding it. Baongla was arrested on one charge but tried on a completely different one; he was not informed of the date of his trial and so was unable to defend himself; and he was not re-arrested until over two months after the trial took place. Such irregularities not only cast grave doubts on the verdict of the court but raise suspicions as to the motives of those pressing charges against Baongla.
Given these evident procedural failings, I would appeal to you to intervene in order that a review of the events surrounding Baongla’s case be carried out. In the meantime, I would urge you
to ensure that the journalist is released immediately pending such a review.
Yours respectfully,
Eugene Schoulgin
International Chair
Writers in Prison Committee
International PEN
cc Cameroonian High Commissioner, United Kingdom
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
S.E. Paul Biya
Président de la République
Palais de l’Unité
1000
Yaoundé, Cameroon
Fax: +237 233 022
E-mail: celcom@camnet.cm
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
