Paul Biya signs a new decree revoking a magistrate

This year’s edition of the feast of the Nativity will forever be a sad memory for Etienne Ndjonkou, the president of the Court of Appeal of the Eastern region. Faced with professional trouble for a year, he has been excluded permanently from the judiciary.

Paul Biya, the head of the Cameroonian State and Chairman of the Magistracy Supreme Council has signed a decree which revokes Etienne Ndjonkou "from the judiciary without suspension of pension rights, for violation of the secrecy of deliberation after the revelation to a lawyer of one of the parties to the trial, the manuscript of his draft decision," explained the text signed by Paul Biya.

This decision taken by the highest 'authoritarian judiciary' of the country comes as a result of a disciplinary procedure which lasted from September 2013.

Accused of serious behaviour in the exercise of his functions, Etienne Ndjonkou, newly installed in Bertoua from Douala, had first been suspended from his duties by Laurent Esso, Minister of State, Minister of Justice garde des sceaux. A suspension endorsed on Thursday 18 December in the unity Palace in Yaoundé during a meeting of the Supreme Magistracy Council.