Cameroon’s failure to give effect to Compensation Commission to compensate wrongly convicted man violated Covenant rights

Facts

The author is François Martin Zibi, a Cameroonian national who was arrested as part of an anti-corruption police operation and charged with misappropriation of public funds. The author was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine. The author appealed and, after five years in detention, was acquitted by a Supreme Court ruling on the grounds of lack of evidence. The author alleges that the State party’s Code of Criminal Procedure provides for a compensation commission in such circumstances, but it had not been formally established within the author’s applicable time frame for filing a claim, so there was no available mechanism to seek compensation from the State party. As such he claims a violation of his rights under articles 2 (3) and 14 (1).

Admissibility

The Committee considered that domestic remedies were fully exhausted as the State party could not reasonably expect the author to lodge a claim with the compensation commission when it was not operational. The author’s claims under article 2 are inadmissible on their own because article 2 provisions do not give rise to independent claims. The author sufficiently substantiated claims raised under article 14 (1) read alone and in conjunction with article 2 (3).

Merits

The Committee observed that the claim before it was whether the author had access to a remedy that would allow him to establish and assert his right to compensation. The Committee noted that the author could not make use of the compensation commission because it had not been formally established within the applicable time frame after his acquittal, and he had still not been paid his due salary payments. The Committee thus considered that the State party’s failure to give effect to the compensation commission as a means to obtain compensation for damages constituted a violation of article 14 (1), read alone and in conjunction with article 2 (3).

Recommendations

The State party should, inter alia: a) Provide the author with adequate compensation for the violation of article 14 (1) of the Covenant; b) Provide the author with access, as quickly as possible, to a mechanism through which he can claim compensation for his wrongful detention.

Implementation

Deadline for implementation: 13 September 2023