Cameroon set to expel to US detained writer Nganang

Patrick Nganang, a Cambodian filmmaker from New York, will be released from prison in Cameroon and expelled from his homeland in the United States, said his lawyer today. Nganang was arrested three weeks ago, accusing him of insulting and threatening President Paul Biya. The award-winning writer was arrested on December 7, preparing for a flight to Kenya, accusing the insult of President Paul Biy. The government later said it threatened Biy in posts on Facebook. Professor of Literature at New York's State University in Stony Brook, Nganang was born in Cameroon and holds dual Cameroon and American citizenship. Nganang's attorney Emmanuel Simh told Reuters that the judge dismissed the accusations of the government and ordered the release of his client. Simh later said the authorities had kept Nganang's passport and would be set for an afternoon flight to the United States.

“According to (the government), he is an American who does not have a right to this passport,” Simh said.

Nganang’s supporters say the accusations against him were politically motivated and related to a Dec. 5 piece he wrote for Paris-based magazine Jeune Afrique, in which he criticized a government crackdown on Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

Since last year, the government, which is dominated by members of the French-speaking majority, has repressed protests by English speakers who say they are socially and economically marginalised.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in unrest that has fuelled support for separatists seeking an independent state. Some separatists have launched armed attacks on state forces, creating the most serious challenge to Biya’s 35-year rule.

Thousands of English speakers have fled across the border into neighboring Nigeria.

Cameroonian law forbids adults from holding dual nationality, although the prohibition is unevenly enforced.

English speakers make up around a fifth of the population of Cameroon, which was formed when parts of a formerly British-ruled territory joined the larger, newly independent French-speaking Republic of Cameroon in 1961.

The past year’s violence is the latest example of how Biya’s rule has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent, with opposition activists, journalists and intellectuals routinely arrested and sometimes prosecuted.

A Cameroonian reporter for Radio France Internationale was released from prison last week after more than two years behind bars for contact with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, in a case that drew international condemnation.

  

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