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Charges against Cameroon journalist Mimi Mefo dropped

Monday November 12 2018
Mimi

Cameroon’s Equinoxe television and radio presenter Mimi Mefo, FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By NDI EUGENE NDI

Charges against Cameroonian journalist Mimi Mefo have been dropped, her lawyer Richard Tamfu confirmed.

“The military state prosecutor has discontinued proceedings on the instructions of the head of state,” Mr Tamfu said, explaining that the procedure is legally known as nolle prosequi.

Ms Mefo appeared in at the military court in Douala Monday, to answer to her charges for alleged dissemination of fake news, likely to harm public authorities or national cohesion.

She was on Saturday released from the dreaded New Bell central prison in the commercial capital.

The Equinoxe television and radio presenter had been transferred to New Bell jail late last Wednesday on the orders of a state prosecutor at the Douala military tribunal.

The prosecution

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A weekend statement attributed to the Cameroon military spokesperson, Col Didier Badjeck, said President Paul Biya ordered the journalist’s release and a halt to the prosecution “in a gesture of magnanimity”.

“This does not mean, far from it, that this journalist is innocent, far from it," the statement said further.

The military state prosecutor charged Ms Mefo over a social media report in which she said the Cameroonian soldiers were responsible for the death of an American missionary who was shot in the head amid fighting between armed separatists and soldiers in the crisis-hit Northwest region.

Without fear

The government said bullets that killed the US Baptist missionary came from a 12-gauge weapon which is used by the secessionist terrorists operating in the English speaking Northwest and Southwest regions.

Individuals and groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Cameroon Journalists Trade Union (SNJC) and the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ), had condemned the detention and called on authorities to immediately free her and allow her to do her job without fear.

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