The Conseil National des Barreaux would like to reiterate its support for the lawyer Lydienne Yen Eyoum, whose sentencing to 25 years imprisonment was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Cameroon on Tuesday 9th June. Ms Yen Eyoum's lawyers brought the case before the United Nations Human Rights Council, which the same day ruled the arrest and detention of the Franco-Cameroonian lawyer to be arbitrary, mainly because reasons were not given for her arrest, and the legal deadlines for temporary detention were not met.
Lydienne Yen Eyoum's trial has been going since 2010, violating the most basic principles of the right to a fair trial. Ms. Yen Eyoum, a lawyer at the Douala Bar, was arrested in 2010 and remanded in custody for four and a half years – in disregard of the maximum period of 18 months established by law – accused of misappropriation of public funds, before being judged and sentenced to 25 years in prison on September 26th 2013, by a Cameroonian special criminal court. Her detention conditions remain extremely worrying and put her life at risk.
Lydienne Yen Eyoum is being prosecuted by the Cameroonian state for acts which were directly related to her role as a lawyer, since they occurred within the context of a case she was handling on behalf of the Cameroonian state, in a litigation between the state and the Cameroonian subsidiary of the French bank Société Générale.
The Conseil National des Barreaux would like to express its support for Lydienne Yen Eyoum and asks that her criminal status be re-examined in accordance with the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the right to a fair trial which are guaranteed by the Cameroonian constitution and by multiple international instruments ratified by Cameroon.
Lydienne Yen Eyoum is being prosecuted by the Cameroonian state for acts which were directly related to her role as a lawyer, since they occurred within the context of a case she was handling on behalf of the Cameroonian state, in a litigation between the state and the Cameroonian subsidiary of the French bank Société Générale.
The Conseil National des Barreaux would like to express its support for Lydienne Yen Eyoum and asks that her criminal status be re-examined in accordance with the fundamental principles of the rule of law and the right to a fair trial which are guaranteed by the Cameroonian constitution and by multiple international instruments ratified by Cameroon.
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LE CONSEIL NATIONAL