Activists plead in terror case

Three members of Cameroon's Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, which protests that the country's English-speakers are being treated as second-class citizens, have pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges at a Yaounde military court. Felix Nkongho, Neba Aforteka'a and Mancho Bibixy were arrested in January and charged with conspiracy to commit ‘acts of terrorism, secession, revolution, insurrection’ and ‘inciting civil war’. All charges are punishable by death. A report on the Africa Times site notes that about 120 lawyers appeared in the courtroom to support the defendants. The trial was scheduled to begin on 1 February but the case was postponed until 23 March to allow the state to present its list of witnesses. ‘We haven't yet completed our investigations,’ the prosecutor said. ‘We are still registering victims.’ A report on the News24 site notes that defence attorney Charles Tchoungang said the trial affects ‘freedom of thought and freedom of belief’.