NEWS: Outcry as killer soldiers bag 10 year prison sentence in Cameroon

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 08:24 am

A video showing soldiers executing two ladies at shut range, kneeling and blindfolded, alongside with a woman and a baby two years ago had prompted massive outcry in Cameroon. But there is even extra outcry now.

At the time, the government denied any involvement before recanting and arresting seven soldiers.

Four of them have now received a 10-year prison sentence for the killing. Another, sentenced to two years. The ultimate two acquitted. Human rights organizations are disgusted.

Maximilienne Ngo Mbe is the Director of the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa.

“A ten-year prison sentence is not only weak, it is insignificant. It is not solely insignificant, however it is insignificant due to the fact those who get ten years are not, in fact, these who ordered the murders.” the human rights campaigner explains.

The defence tips alternatively in truth wishes to enchantment the verdict. Me Sylvestre Mben is a attorney for the incriminated soldiers. He says “we should now not neglect a felony provision in our procedural code which states that the allegations of one co-accused in opposition to another can only be valid if they are confronted by way of other evidence. It is for this motive that we trust that there was, at the very least, some doubt.”

The video used to be one of countless to emerge in latest years of alleged atrocities with the aid of Cameroonian forces throughout operations against Islamist Boko Haram militants in the northern phase of the country and in opposition to Anglophone separatists in the west.

The trial began in January and used to be carried out behind closed doors.

(AFP)