Discharged and Committal for Trial under the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code

Abstract

Today’s rules of Criminal Procedure in Cameroon are expressed in the Harmonized Criminal Procedure Code. Before this code, there usually exists the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, being the Law Governing aspects of Criminal Procedure in Anglophone Cameroon and the Code d’Instruction Criminelle and the French Code of Criminal Procedure of 1808, which was the major source of criminal procedure. Thus, both the adversarial elements of the English system and the inquisitorial pre-trial investigation of the French system that characterized both the Criminal Procedure Ordinance and the Code d’Instruction Criminelle, have been harmonized under a single Criminal Procedure Code, also known as “the code”. It should be noted that, the accused under the English system was not question or otherwise involved in the procedure between charge and trial. This is contrary to the French and German system which aimed at establishing the truth and to bring offenders to justice. This therefore makes an analysis for the basis of discharge and committal for trial at the level of preliminary investigation under the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code. Moreover, the Code obliges the Examining Magistrate to carry out Preliminary investigation in all felonious cases, but however makes it discretionary in simple and misdemeanour offences. This paper therefore purports to examine discharged and committal for trial as it is under the Harmonized Criminal Procedure Code of Cameroon, bringing out strictly the bases for which the Examining Magistrate derives their decision to either discharge or commit an accused for trail. This paper seeks to examine discharge and committal for trial under the code, which is understandably, the law in Cameroon today.