Paul Eric Kingué is free

For the third time in two months, Paul Eric Kingué left his cell in Douala central prison to the Supreme Court in Yaoundé on Thursday, July 16, 2015.

The former Mayor of the Penja Municipality embarked on this back and forth expedition under a heavy escort because the highest court in the country decided ultimately to release him after about seven years of incarceration in Nkongsamba and Douala prisons respectively in the Littoral region.

The incredible misfortune that hit judicial and political chronicle, even beyond the borders of Cameroon ended happily for Paul Eric Kingué. Accused of being one of the instigators of the hunger strike of 2008, the Court of Appeal of the Littoral region sentenced Paul Eric Kingué, in early 2010, to three years imprisonment, while the High Court of Nkongsamba had sentenced him to six years in prison.

Also in the case of the famous prisoner in the Commune of Penja, the Littoral Appeal Court had pronounced a verdict of ten years imprisonment against PEK, as he is affectionately called. He was then condemned to life. It is this sentence of ten years that retained Paul Eric Kingue in New Bell prison.

Convinced of his innocence and in need of his honor, Paul Eric Kingué appealed against the two verdicts of the Court of Appeal of Littoral. The Supreme Court subsequently had to decide in the last resort.

At the first hearing, Thursday, May 21, the tracks of a release had been cleared by the rapporteur Adviser and the Public Prosecutor in advocating for the acquittal of the accused.

Finally, the judges of the highest court rendered a verdict which is in the same vein as that of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which was provided last year after an investigation, that the conviction of the ex-mayor of Njome Penja was unfair.