14, July 2019
France arrests 21 after hundreds of African migrants occupy Pantheon 0
France on Saturday detained 21 African migrants who surged into the Pantheon in Paris to push their claims for regularised status, police said.
The 21 will be held pending investigation into potentially “violating legislation on foreigners,” the local prefecture said.
One demonstrator was also detained on a charge of violent behaviour against a police officer and was due to face a magistrate Sunday, the Paris prosecutor said.
A small crowd gathered outside the police commissariat in Paris’ fifth district where the migrants were detained. Some brandished placards urging the authorities to “free the gilets noirs (black vests)” and “police racists,” according to an AFP photographer.
The “Black Vests” is a Paris-based migrant association that takes its name from the “yellow vest” anti-government protest movement.
French authorities had arrested 37 people on Friday after around 700 undocumented migrants stormed the Pantheon, the final resting place of France’s greatest non-military luminaries including the writers Voltaire, Victor Hugo and Emile Zola.
In a statement Friday, the Black Vest protesters said they wanted “papers and housing for everyone”, describing themselves as “the undocumented, the voiceless and the faceless of the French Republic”.
They also demanded a meeting with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.
After the migrants were Friday brought out of the Pantheon Philippe tweeted the need to respect “the rule of law which means respect for the rules that apply to the right to remain, respect for public monuments and for the memory they represent”.
The “Black Vests” are known for staging headline-grabbing protests in support of the undocumented.
In June, they briefly occupied the headquarters of the Paris-based catering and property Elior Group and in May its activists occupied a terminal at the city’s Charles De Gaulle airport against “Air France’s collaboration” in the deportation of undocumented migrants.
(AFP)
15, July 2019
French Cameroun Crisis: Biya Locks Up Lawyer Ndoki, Francophones Entirely Silent 0
The Vice President of the Women’s wing of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, Barrister Michelle Ndoki has been charged with illegal emigration by the Military Tribunal in Yaounde. This was made known on Friday July 11 as the court established charges against members of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement who are detained at the Kondengui Maximum security prison.
Michelle Ndoki who was arrested in Limbe as she attempted to leave the country will remain in detention following the charge. All attempts by her lawyers after filing a habeas corpus petition for her release were thrown out by the Court of First Instance in Yaounde and the Appeal Court of the Centre Region. She will remain in detention alongside the President of the CRM Maurice Kamto and his allies who have equally been charged by the Military Tribunal.
The UN Secretary General, Guterres on June 28 tried to erase his failure and failure of credibility on Cameroon by embracing an attempt to mediate by Switzerland. In Geneva, Swiss police used tear gas against protesters of Biya’s corruption, right in front of the UN.
Source: Inner City Press