Cameroon military tribunal decided on Wednesday to remand in custody leaders of the country's English-speaking community on terror-related charges pending trial.
The Yaounde tribunal refused to free on bail lawyer Felix Agbor Nkongho, teacher Neba Fontem Aforteka'a and broadcaster Mancho Bibixy, pending a June 29 trial, an AFP journalist reported.
The court's presiding judge also rejected an appeal for the release of 24 other anglophones facing charges over "acts of terrorism" and complicity to commit such acts.
All charges are punishable by death.
Bernard Muna, chief defense counsel for the accused, told AFP he was disappointed at the tribunal's decision given the public prosecutor had, he said, "not been opposed" to the temporary release of Agbor and Fontem under judicial surveillance.
The accused were arrested in January after the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society consortium (Cacsc) called a strike to promote the rights of the English-speaking minority, which accounts for some 20% of the central African country's 22 million population.
The Cacsc says the anglophone community, mainly based in the southwest and northwest, is marginalised.
Some English-speakers are pushing for a return to federal government while others want to split from the eight French-speaking areas.
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