POLITICAL PRISONERS ‘RELEASE COMMITTEE DECLARATION NO. 000009 FOLLOWING THE OPINION OF THE UN WORKING GROUP ON ARBITRARY DETENTION OF MR. YVES MICHEL FOTSO
At the close of its 78th session from 19 to 28 April 2017, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted Opinion No. 40/2017 on the case of the former Director General of Cameroon Airlines and Cameroonian businessman Yves Michel Fotso.
On paragraph 57, the Working Group concluded its decision, made public on 28 July, stating: “The Working Group considers, on the basis of paragraph 17 (b) of its working methods, that it is not, in this case, a matter of arbitrary detention “.
In other words, the evidence submitted by Mr. Yves Michel Fotso to the Working Group is not sufficient to establish arbitrary detention under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CL2P):
1/ Notes that Mr. Yves Michel Fotso and his lawyers have referred the matter to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the basis of a so-called regime of technical defense. By opting for a technical defense, Yves Michel Fotso and his councils have de facto given credibility to the legal despotism of the regime of Yaoundé where justice is a true mirage.
This legal maneuver may be motivated by the state of necessity in which Mr. Yves Michel Fotso finds himself being subjected to multiple abuses in forms of physical and moral cruelties that political prisoners in Cameroon are forced to endure. Indeed political prisoners often resort to expedients including legal ones to try desperately to sensitize international opinion when all the channels of Justice are blocked in regimes known as lawful despotism. Addressing vital emergencies as the ultimate legal lifeline seems perfectly natural for a political prisoner confronted with a legal despotism which, as in Cameroon, leaves him virtually no chance of being judged fairly and equitably.
For this reason, because Fotso’s legal tactic really amount to a case of legal survival, the decision of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations concerning Yves Michel Fotso cannot stand as a legal precedent or stare decisis. For the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s decision is not sufficient enough, to say it has no merits, to justify a legal precedent. That decision is more akin to a legal crutch offered to a dictatorship.
2 / The CL2P wishes to make it clear that Mr. Yves Michel Fotso continues to meet the criteria designed by our organization (presentation
With regards to the latter criterion, it should be remembered that Mr. Yves Michel Fotso is detained at the Yaoundé Defense Secretary’s Camp, a military camp where he is guarded and escorted by the National Gendarmerie’s elite corps.
As regards the first criterion cited, Mr. Fotso was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment and a double life sentence, all for financial misconduct, in connection with the purchase of a presidential airplane and his management of the Camair, the national airplane company.
To be sure, the political nature of Mr. Yves Michel Fotso’s detention is reflected in this extract from the communication of the Cameroonian Government of 10 March 2016 by the voice of his spokesperson, Mr. Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who said: “I would like to address the issue of judicial proceedings against certain prominent personalities, whether high-ranking state officials or business personalities, in the State against corruption and offenses against public wealth. “
What else can we say except that Yves Michel Fotso’s chief prosecutor is none other than the Cameroonian head of state, Paul Biya, according to the spokesman for his government.
3/ The arbitrary nature of the detention of Yves Michel Fotso having been reversed by the UN, the Committee for the Liberation of Political Prisoners deplores the fact that it has never been prosecuted on the basis of clear and precise evidences in Cameroon, at least guarantee him a fair trial. This speaks a lot about the partiality of opinion No. 40/2017 issued by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations at the end of its 78th session held between 19 and 28 April 2017.
The Commitee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CL2P)
Paris on August 3, 2017
