Ahmed
Abba, RFI’s Reporter In Cameroon
A
reporter for Radio France Internationale's Hausa service appeared in a military
court on Monday accused of being an accomplice of the Boko Haram armed Islamist
movement.
The
trial was adjourned until 28 March to allow judges to examine claims by Ahmed
Abba's lawyers that he has been tortured and suffered other rights abuses.
Abba,
who was arrested last July, faces charges of "complicity in terrorism and
failing to denounce acts of terror", according to the charge sheet read in
the court in Yaoundé.
He
denies the charges and his lawyers want the trial scrapped, arguing that his
detention is "arbitrary and illegal".
They
also say that he was initially denied access to his family and lawyers and kept in
chains "like in Guantanamo".
Abba
is accused of acting as an accomplice to two members of Boko Haram, which is
based in Nigeria but active in northern Cameroon, where the government says it has
killed 1,200 people since 2013.
Prosecutors
also accused him of failing to warn the authorities of "activities by the
Boko Haram sect".
Cameroon
introduced capital punishment for involvement in terror attacks or complicity
in terrorism in a controversial law passed in 2014.