Bar President on lawyers’ memorandum to Biya

Can you comment on the Penal Code issue once more?

No, I don’t think I will. The Bar has written to the Head of State and is waiting for the reply so I have to behave very decent. I cannot write to him and then continue to shout; we are just waiting for the answer.

People would want to know the content of the message you sent to the Head of State. It is just proper for Cameroonians to know that the lawyers have been and are fighting for them.

The letter written to the Head of State is to allow the Bar contribute to the country’s Penal Code. We have some amendments to put in the Penal Code and we want to be allowed to give our contribution. In fact, we already gave our contribution and just want the Government to take into account the contribution we made and that is why wrote to the Head of State.

Is it the contribution made in 2011 or it is a new one you are making?

It is not the one we made in 2011; it is a new one. We made a new contribution last week. We sent a memorandum of 40 pages and our proposals are inside.

People say you are only concerned about articles that bring more money to the lawyers’ pocket. For instance, the issue of criminalizing unpaid house rents where in the past was a civil matter and lawyers were making a lot of money from it.

We were the first to have put of the problem of immunity and we got the result of that so, on one part I think we have already been understood. So many articles have to be modified and we are just waiting for the answer of the Head of State.

Journalists have been complaining of article 305 which talks of criminalizing press offences. Is it part of the 40 page memorandum sent to the Head of State?

No. The Bar did not discuss the criminalization of press offences and the Bar has not decided to ask of the decriminalization of it. This is because we think journalists have to be responsible and responsibility goes with freedom. Remember that press freedom goes with responsibility.

We have not specifically asked for the decriminalization of the article on the press, but we remember that some years back, certain journalists were incarcerated for press offences. We are in a country where press offences are punishable by the Penal Code but then we defend the imprisonment of journalists in the fight to liberate the media.

The fact that press offences are punishable by the Penal Code is dangerous but, a professional journalist … because journalism is a profession that must be responsible, cannot be obstructed from doing his job, especially as the press needs to be auto regulated.

Mr. President, can you confirm that the Bar was actually consulted in 2011. We hear rumours that you said you made no documents to that effect.

The Ministry showed me documents confirming that the Bar has been consulted in Yaounde in 2011 at the Mont Febe, but it was not a consultation. It was a meeting of the presentation of the document and they called it validation meeting and lasted just for a day; I think between 10am and noon.

The document was being presented by cabinet brains, first who were the few who drafted the code. Barrister Eta Bissong was there and called me to say he made observations and that observation has not been taken on the Penal Code.

But you know the Bar had been consulted but, when the Bar council met two weeks ago, we were not informed that the Bar was consulted, but I admitted after my discussion with the Minister of Justice that we were consulted.

But even if I am consulted in the morning, I can change my opinion in the afternoon so, whether the Bar was consulted or not, is not important. What is important is, have we something to add to the Penal Code now. And the answer is, ‘Yes’.Copy (2) of IMG_20160707_123427

Apart from the issue of house rents, what other issue touches the common man that you also want reviewed?

One of the dangerous articles in the Penal Code is the issue of criminalizing the tenant. The Bar is out to see that this common man who is the tenant is protected. I know very well that Cameroon has a number of economic challenges, among which is the issue of poverty, and I don’t think the Government has to consider legally poverty punishable.

The idea of criminalizing tenants who cannot pay their rents, risks transforming our police cells … because at the Police Station, the concern should not be on to lock up the tenant, but to seek ways of recovering the money.

It is not the duty of the police to recover house rents; it is the duty of the lawyers. You cannot criminalized such civil offense in the Cameroonian society, take for example in the there is Boko Haram in the Far North Region of Cameroon and insecurity.

Take a parent who wants to send money to his child who is in the University of Buea but cannot because there is insecurity for him to set out and does the money transfer for his child to pay his house rents in Buea. Then the child is taken to the Police Station and considered as a criminal? This is a very simple example.

If we have such a law which disfavors 90 percent of the population, I do not think it is a way any country’s penal code should be.

Lydienne Eyoum has been released. What’s the Bar reaction to this?

The Bar is happy for her release, even though it was a little bit quiet about it.