Cameroon’s main opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who was runner-up in last year’s presidential election, on Friday goes to trial in a military court on insurrection charges that have sparked an international outcry.
Kamto and dozens of political allies and supporters face charges of insurrection, hostility to the motherland and rebellion, crimes which could carry the death penalty.
His trial will go ahead despite repeated protests from France, the United States and the European Union, who have been calling for his release from detention for eight months.
“There is no justification for Mr Kamto and his supporters to have been incarcerated for eight months in these conditions,” their French lawyer Antoine Vey told AFP.
Kamto, the head of the opposition Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC), was arrested in late January after months of peaceful opposition protests over the results of the October 2018 presidential election.
The MRC charges the election was rigged in favour of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years. Kamto believes he won the election.
