Cameroon: Lawyer Alice Nkom sentenced to a one-year suspended prison term for 'breaking seals'
The Douala-Bonanjo Court of First Instance sentenced Cameroonian lawyer Alice Nkom to a one-year suspended prison term and a fine of 500,000 CFA francs for "breaking seals" on September 21, 2026, report RFI and the Cameroonian website 237actu. The president of the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (Redhac) was, however, acquitted of the charge of rebellion, as the offense was not upheld.
Seals removed publicly
On December 6, 2024, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, suspended Redhac for three months, citing suspicions of illicit funding. Three days later, authorities placed seals on the organization's offices in Douala. Alice Nkom subsequently removed them publicly, deeming the measure illegal—according to Camer.be, following an order from the administrative court. It is this act, and this act alone, that the court has sanctioned.
In addition to the fine, the lawyer must pay 62,100 CFA francs in legal costs, specifies 237actu, which indicates that imprisonment in default of payment was ruled out. Maximilienne Ngo Mbe, executive director of Redhac, who was prosecuted in the same case, was acquitted. According to RFI, Alice Nkom intends to appeal; the legal deadline is ten days.
What the procedure says, and does not say
The suspension issued at the end of 2024 targeted, according to the ministry, suspicions of illicit funding. No conviction for these facts appears in the reports consulted: what was judged was the removal of the seals, not the origin of the organization's funds. Redhac has been documenting human rights abuses in Central Africa for years, including in Cameroon.
What comes next
If the appeal is filed within the deadlines, the Court of Appeal will have to re-examine the case; the suspended sentence means that Alice Nkom is not incarcerated. The matter goes beyond the case of a single lawyer. Defending the rights of Africans also means defending citizens against their own governments: the space left for organizations that monitor power is an indicator as telling as a growth rate. The presumption of innocence and the right to appeal apply to all parties.
This article was written in French with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited below, then translated from French automatically. Read the original.
