Geneva assault: court condemns bodyguards of Cameroon president

An appeals court in Geneva has confirmed a conviction of six bodyguards of Cameroonian President Paul Biya, who were accused of manhandling a journalist in 2019 outside a hotel in Geneva. The information about the latest verdict, reported by the Tribune de Genève newspaper, was confirmed to the Keystone-SDA agency by Robert Assaël, the lawyer for one of the convicted. According to the Tribune de Genève, which saw the ruling, “five defendants were found guilty of duress and unlawful appropriation” and were given suspended fines, as was a sixth who was “only convicted of unlawful appropriation”. The case has already been examined by the Federal Court, Switzerland’s highest legal body, before which the Cameroonian president’s bodyguards had argued their immunity. Read more: Switzerland complains to Cameroon about “unacceptable” attack The supreme court rejected this interpretation, ruling that the bodyguards had not acted for Paul Biya’s safety when they attacked a journalist working ...