The life sentence handed down to Anglophone peace activist Abdu Karim Ali is an affront to justice, and he should be released immediately, Amnesty International said today, after obtaining the judgment convicting him.

Abdu Karim Ali, who was charged with “hostility against the homeland” and “secession”, was sentenced by the military Court in Yaoundé on 16 April. He had been arrested without a warrant in Bamenda in August 2022 after he denounced torture committed and broadcast online by the leader of a pro-government militia in the south-west region of the country. He has been arbitrarily detained since then.

“Abdu Karim Ali waited nearly three years before being tried by a military court and sentenced to an extreme punishment simply for exercising his right to freedom of expression. This shameful judgment breaches international human rights law and standards,” said Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Interim Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

“The authorities unlawfully held Abdu Karim Ali in prolonged arbitrary detention, and tried him in a military court, in violation of Cameroonian law and international human rights law and standards. Amnesty International calls for his immediate and unconditional release.”

In May 2024, Abdul Karim Ali challenged the jurisdiction of the military tribunal in a letter, refusing to recognize its authority. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia, after he refused to appear in the military court.

His lawyer told Amnesty International: “To think that he was prosecuted for his thoughts, national origins, associations and political opinion is the quintessential case of political persecution.” The lawyer also said that he has appealed the sentence.

Background

Abdul Karim Ali ran the Peace Research Center in Bamenda and regularly delivered speeches and trainings on peace and security. He was a vocal advocate of the Swiss-led mediation process as a way out of the Anglophone crisis.

On 11 August 2022, after being arrested in the city of Bamenda, he was held for 84 days – four of which were incommunicado – at a military police station in inhumane conditions. While no formal reason was given for his detention, he was interrogated repeatedly about a video he made on 9 July 2022 denouncing a Cameroonian military chief known as ‘Moja Moja’ for torturing civilians.

In February 2023, Amnesty International denounced Abdul Karim Ali’s arbitrary detention and called for his release.

Hundreds of people from the Anglophone regions are still being arbitrarily detained, including for their participation in peaceful protests denouncing the perceived discrimination against them. Many of them have been convicted by military courts on charges that criminalize the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ordered the immediate release of several detained Anglophone activists, including Mancho Bibixy Tse, Tsi Conrad and ten others illegally deported from Nigeria to Cameroon.

The Cameroon authorities have been imprisoning supporters or activists of the opposition party ‘Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon’ (MRC) for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Thirty-eight of them who participated in a protest in September 2020 are still detained.