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Afro – German Cameroonian Wilfried Siewe from Erlangen who was wrongfully imprisoned is now free

Afro- German Cameroonian man Wilfried Siewe from Erlangen, who has been detained in Cameroon since February 2019, is now free. 

This was announced by a representative of the Erlangen support group nordbayern.de on Saturday (December 5th) upon request. It is still unclear when the native Cameroonian will arrive in Germany with a German passport.

Background story:

In February last year while the family was on their last day of their vacation, Wilfried Siewe tried to take a picture of a building and thus he was arrested.

The police in Cameroon classified him as a political activist. The police woman arresting him found a video of a Cameroon demo in Berlin on his cell phone and he also had a book by an opposition politician with him.

Although Wilfried Siewe was able to prove that he was neither in Berlin nor on the demonstration, he was jailed. 

What has happened since then?

Since Saturday afternoon (December 5), a picture of Wilfried Siewe from Erlangen free in front of the prison in Yaounde after his release has also been on the specially set up Facebook page “Freedom for Wilfried Siewe”.

As José Luis Ortega Lleras further reported to this media company, the authorities had given two dates for the time of release: December 5th or December 29th. Now it is December 5th.

A petition to free Afro-German Wilfried Siewe from false imprisonment in a Cameroonian jail targets German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass and Ambassador Hans Deiter

When Siewe will leave the African country and fly to Germany, Ortega could not say. Siewe’s wife, Layoko Siewe,  was initially not available for this media company, but had her husband’s release confirmed via Ortega. “We hope he comes home as soon as possible,” said Ortega. 

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Since the last court judgement in October, it has been clear: Wilfried Siewe will be allowed to leave prison in December 2020. The court in Yaounde had Siewe imprisonment for 16 months in an appeal proceeding, but gave him credit for the prison term he had already served.

Source: Nordbayern