Thomas Awah Junior, a journalist from Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region, was sentenced in 2018 to serve an 11-year sentence on multiple charges that include secession, insurrection, and spreading false information. He was tried in a military court, alongside two other journalists and four other Anglophone detainees. In 2019, Awah was sentenced to an additional three years after protesting poor prison conditions.
Awah appealed his original conviction, which was partially overturned in 2021. In 2023, he appealed to the Supreme Court, but as of late 2024, no hearing date had been set. He is in poor health.
On January 2, 2017, Awah, a correspondent for the privately owned Afrik2 Radio and publisher of the monthly Aghem Messenger magazine, was arrested in Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest Region, while interviewing protesters, a person familiar with the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
The protests were part of Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis, which began in 2016 when lawyers and teachers demonstrated against the use of French in minority English-speaking regions. The government’s deadly crackdown triggered a secessionist rebellion and conflict that has escalated in recent years, with about 600,000 people internally displaced and 1.7 million in need of humanitarian aid, according to Human Rights Watch.
Awah was found in possession of documents from the secessionist Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), a second person familiar with the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
On May 25, 2018, a military court in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé sentenced Awah to 11 years in prison and a fine of 268 million CFA francs (US$479,850), according to media reports and a copy of the judgment seen by CPJ. The journalist was found guilty of terrorism, hostility to the fatherland, secession, revolution, insurrection, spreading false news, and contempt for civil authority. Six other Anglophone detainees, including journalists Mancho Bibixy and Tsi Conrad, were sentenced on similar charges.
On September 17, 2018, Awah, who suffered from poor physical and mental health before his arrest, was admitted to the Yaoundé Central Hospital after a social media campaign. He had chronic tuberculosis and pneumonia, according to a third person familiar with his case, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals, and the rights group Freedom Now.
According to that person and media reports, on October 16, 2018, Awah was discharged because of mounting hospital bills. CPJ wrote to President Paul Biya requesting that he release Awah on medical grounds but did not receive a reply.
On July 22, 2019, a protest by Kondengui Central Prison inmates over overcrowding and delays in hearing their cases, resulted in Awah’s special detention within the jail, according to that person.
On August 8, 2019, Yaoundé’s Ekounou Court of First Instance charged Awah with group rebellion, arson, attempt to escape, looting, causing bodily harm, and theft, among other charges, that person told CPJ. On September 9, 2019, Awah was found guilty of group rebellion, destruction of property, and resistance to the administrative order and sentenced to three years in jail, that person told CPJ.
In Awah’s main case, on August 19, 2021, a military appeals tribunal overturned his convictions for terrorism and rebellion but upheld the other five charges, according to Awah’s former lawyer Ngang Ngu Fonguh and a copy of the judgment reviewed by CPJ. It also dropped the fine and reduced the court fines from 31.7 million to 2.5 million CFA francs (US$54,342 to $4,291) to be divided among the seven Anglophone defendants, Fonguh said.
In 2022, Freedom Now’s legal officer, Adam Lhedmat, told CPJ that prison had exacerbated Awah’s pre-existing toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, and the state was charging Awah exorbitant fees for medication, which worsened his family’s strained financial situation, particularly since his father’s death in 2021.
In May 2023 opinion, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Awah’s “alarming” detention conditions had caused his health to worsen and called on Cameroon to immediately free him and grant him compensation.
In May 2023, a joint submission by CPJ, the American Bar Association, and Freedom House to the U.N. Human Rights Council for Cameroon’s Universal Periodic Review called on Cameroon to immediately free Awah and four other arbitrarily detained journalists.
Awah wrote letters, reviewed by CPJ, to the criminal and civil high courts in Yaounde in July 2023 and March 2024 requesting his release on health grounds, citing the U.N. opinion and attaching a medical certificate. In July 2024, He wrote to the Constitutional Council. The third person familiar with the case told CPJ he did not receive any replies.
On August 25, 2023, Fonguh filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ. As of late 2024, the Supreme Court had not set a date for a hearing, according to that person.
As of late 2024, CPJ’s requests for comment sent via email and messaging app to the Director of the Civil Cabinet in the Presidency Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, Prime Minister Joseph Ngute, Secretary-General of the Presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, and Cameroon’s U.S. Ambassador Henri Etoundi Essomba, and via email to Communication Minister René Sadi and Justice Minister Laurent Esso received no replies.