Tsi Conrad, a filmmaker and photographer from Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region, was sentenced in 2018 to serve 15 years on multiple charges, including secession, hostility against the state, and spreading false news. He was tried in a military court alongside two other journalists and four other Anglophone detainees. In 2019, Conrad was sentenced to an additional 18 months, after protesting poor prison conditions.
Conrad 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.
A person familiar with the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals, that Conrad is from Bamenda, capital of the Northwest Region, where he worked for Ruphina’s House, a news agency and film production company that he started in 2013, and Cejay Productions, a multimedia company.
Conrad also provided video and photos to the pro-separatist news website Bareta News and photos to Bamenda-based Abakwa FM Radio, CNTV, Horizon TV, Rush FM Radio, and Ndefcam Radio, and published them on his blog and Facebook, according to Bareta News’ owner Mark Bareta and the person familiar with the case.
On December 8, 2016, Conrad was arrested at gunpoint by at least 10 military officers and his camera was destroyed while filming demonstrators protesting a rally by the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement in Bamenda that turned violent, according to that person.
Conrad was taken to a police station and interrogated about the images he took and the media outlets he distributed them to, that person told CPJ. That night, Conrad was transferred to the capital Yaoundé, where he was detained without outside contact for two weeks at the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance, the police’s intelligence arm.
The clashes 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.
On December 23, 2016, Conrad and several others were brought before the Yaoundé Military Court to face charges, according to the person familiar with the case and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, marking the start of a trial that was adjourned at least 16 times.
On May 25, 2018, Conrad was found guilty of terrorism, secession, hostility against the state, contempt for civil authority, rebellion, and spreading false news, including by electronic means, and sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of 268 million CFA francs (US$479,850), according to news reports and a copy of the judgment, reviewed by CPJ. Six other Anglophone detainees were sentenced on similar charges, including journalists Mancho Bibixy and Thomas Awah Junior.
On July 22, 2019, a protest by Kondengui Central Prison inmates over overcrowding and delays in hearing their cases, resulted in the temporary transfer of Conrad and more than 100 other prisoners to a Yaoundé detention facility, where they were held incommunicado for two weeks, according to Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
On August 6, 2019, Yaoundé’s Ekounou Court of First Instance charged Conrad and other inmates with rebellion, attempted prison break, destruction of property, and theft.
On September 2, 2019, Conrad was found guilty of group rebellion and sentenced to an additional 18 months in prison, the person with knowledge of his case told CPJ. Conrad appealed the charge, and on October 29, 2019, the judge reduced Conrad’s sentence to 16 months, that person said.
In Conrad’s main case, a military appeals tribunal overturned his convictions for terrorism and rebellion on August 19, 2021, but upheld the other five charges, according to Conrad’s lawyer and a copy of the judgment reviewed by CPJ. It also dropped the fine and reduced 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 a 2021, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Conrad was arbitrarily detained and urged the government to immediately release 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 Conrad and four other arbitrarily detained journalists.
On August 25, 2023, after delays in receiving the written judgment from the lower court, Fonguh filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, according to court documents reviewed by CPJ.
In July 2024, Conrad was notified to attend a joint session of the Supreme Court’s judicial division, which was to examine his appeal but the panel unilaterally decided to remove the matter from the court’s roll and sent it for re-examination, Fonguh said, adding a new date had yet to be scheduled.
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.