New Penal Code: Justice Minister says Bar Council was consulted

Despite opposition and public disapproval of the proposed Bill to amend the 50 year old Penal Code of Cameroon, the Senate has gone ahead to adopt the bill thanks to the overall majority of the CPDM party.

It took several hours of consultations between the “big three,” Paul Biya, Senate President, Marcel Niat Njifenji and Justice Minister, Laurent Esso for the bill to be endorsed.

In his defense of the bill Tuesday night, June 28 at the Senate, Laurent Esso was quick to claim that all stake holders were duly consulted including the Cameroon Bar Council and that their proposals were also instrumental in building up the final draft document.

The Minister who is also a Magistrate by profession went forward to refute all claims that the proposed bill will be to the advantage of the rich while marginalizing the poor.

Upon adoption Senate President invited Senate members to go to their constituencies and educate Cameroonians so that wrong interpretation should not prevail.

Esso’s claims came in just hours after a Bar Council extra ordinary session in Douala same Tuesday, June 28 out rightly rejected the proposed bill and stated that the bill proposed to the parliament by the government is fundamentally different from what was proposed to the Bar in December 2011.

To the lawyers, the present bill violates international laws and conventions, full of discriminatory clauses and does not take into consideration the bi-cultural nature of Cameroon as it was drafted in French and wrongly translated into English.

From another front, in an open letter to President Biya, Cameroon Anglophone Newspapers Publishers’ Association urged him to exercise good faith and send the bill back for revision. The Social Democratic Front (SDF) had from day one of the saga rejected the bill and as a tradition staged a walk out during its adoption.

The bill contains about 360 articles and was essentially drafted in French with a poor English translation. Amongst others the bill prescribes imprisonment for tenants who owe up to two months rents.

But grants immunity to members of government who cannot be pursued in court even for embezzlement charges. It was adopted by the National Assembly members last week and this week the Senate debated on the bill.