AU has no right to interfere in Mebara’s case-Cameroonian lawyer

Mr Nomo Beyala argues that the African Union can not “substitute the justice of a country to impose decisions “.

Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara is a happy man for several days now following the decision of the African Commission on Human Rights and Peoples of the African Union. It condemned the State of Cameroon, to pay the former Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, FCFA 400 million in respect to damages for false imprisonment.

It considers that the engaged legal proceedings against the former Minister of Higher Education violate certain provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights relating to fair and impartial justice and the presumption of innocence.

In reaction to that, the State of Cameroon contests the specialized commission of the African Union the right to talk about judicial issues against a member country. “The African Union is not a court. Let alone the African Commission on Human Rights and Peoples. To replace the justice of a country in order to impose decisions is not the vocation of the African Union,“ responded Mr. Nomo Beyala, a lawyer for the State of Cameroon in the cases against Jean-Marie Atangana Mebabra, on the airwaves of Canal 2 International on Monday.