Calls for the release of jailed Cameroon journalist

What you need to know:

Publisher of the monthly Aghem Messenger was arrested in the English-speaking city of Bamenda in January last year
Radical opposition MP Joseph Wirba of the Social Democratic Front said the journalist was arrested on spurious charges
Humanitarian groups say their efforts to move the bedridden journalist to a hospital for medical attention have been futile

More calls have been made for the release of Mr Thomas Awah Junior, a jailed Cameroonian journalist, whose health has greatly deteriorated in a Yaoundé prison.

The Cameroon cyber space has been awash with messages for Mr Awah’s immediate release since photos of him in a frail state emerged at the weekend.

The journalist and publisher of the monthly Aghem Messenger magazine was arrested in the English-speaking city of Bamenda in January last year for issues related to the ongoing Anglophone crisis.

The journalist, said to have a mental complication, has always denied the charges, saying he was apprehended for doing his work. He was slammed with an 11-year jail sentence by the Yaoundé military court in May this year.

Critically ill

Radical opposition MP Joseph Wirba of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), said the journalist was arrested on spurious charges.

“I urge those keeping Mr Thomas Awah to immediately release him. He has since fallen critically ill and needs urgent medical care,” Mr Wirba said in a #FreeThomasAwah tweet.

"How could they prosecute and jail Awah Thomas in the first place under that condition," questioned Mr Franklin Sone Bayen, the publisher of the MediaPeople newspaper media rights advocate.

“Don't I see in civilised countries that mental illness counts as a mitigating factor during sentencing or is it as a condition for proceeding or not with trial,” Mr Bayen asked further.

Host of drugs

Humanitarian groups say their efforts to move the bedridden journalist to a hospital for proper medical attention have been futile.

Mr Ayah Ayah Abine, the president of the Ayah Foundation which provides assistance to people detained and displaced by the Anglophone crisis said the prison administration had rebuffed all moves by the organisation to transfer Mr Awah to a medical facility for treatment.

“On all occasions, our plea has been turned down, even when Thomas Awah was visibly on a dying bed. On one occasion, we were told he will only be permitted to go to hospital if the situation gets worst,” Mr Abine said.

“On our last visit to the prisons last Thursday, September 13, 2018, we supplied to them a host of drugs among which were some for Thomas. We keep pushing, again and again, for his temporal release to take him to hospital,” he added.