Cameroonian lawyers began a three-day “suspension of dress” on Wednesday by leaving the preatoriums to protest police violence against their profession.
The protest was supported by the council of the Lawyers’ Union, which in a statement condemned “the physical violence, brutality and other degrading treatment to which lawyers are repeatedly subjected by the police”. In this press release, the bar of the order of Mbah Eric Mba reports two recent cases.
On Saturday, “videos showing police officers using violence against a lawyer and other degrading and inhumane acts circulated virally on social networks”. A day earlier, the order was informed of the case of another lawyer who was seized by law enforcement for denouncing the violation of his clients’ rights. The council of the order called on lawyers to take action and “decided to initiate legal proceedings so that the perpetrators can answer for their actions”.
Several courts in Yaoundé remained deserted on Wednesday. In mid-November, the Cameroonian Order had already protested police violence against a lawyer who was hospitalized after being arrested by gendarmes in the country’s economic capital, Douala.