The lawyers of former minister have declared their intention to appeal to the Supreme Court to submit the lack of justice applied by the Special Criminal Court at the discretion of the judges of the Supreme Court.
Polycarpe Abah Abah, former Minister of Economy and Finance was sentenced on Tuesday, January 13 for 25 years in prison for four counts of financial fraud estimated at nearly 7.8 billion Cfa francs. According to his lawyers, the accusations are unfounded. "When you read the decision, you will not hear that Mr Abah took a franc".
It was revealed that there was a diversion of funds which they are not even certain of in terms of the amount. There were recoveries except that all the money collected was not repaid.
But the money was not paid into the pockets of Abah Abah, if it was not paid, it means that it remained in the State coffers and indeed, there were demonstrations that shows that 4 billion was available in this account. So then, to whom does this 4 billion belong? Queried Maître Jean Marie Nouga, lawyer of former Minfi.
The sentence handed down by the Special Criminal Tribunal is accompanied by confiscation of the heritage of the former Director-General composed of 29 buildings, nine vehicles, apartments, plots and the closure of his bank accounts.
The Commission of former Minister intends to appeal to the Supreme Court. These lawyers believe that laws were violated during the trial. "I would like to say that seizures must be made on the things obtained from the subject of the offence or crime because the lands which were the subject of entry are rural land from the village. These are lands that our grandfathers left for us which there are land titles to show.
The regulations on the management of a Director of taxes were not examined, the protection of the accounting officer by the State. I want to say that all this, in our opinion, deserves to be subjected to the judge of the Supreme Court for them to evaluate, submitted Maître Jean Marie Nouga, lawyer of Polycarpe Abah Abah.
The charges to the former Minister date back to the time when he was Director-general of taxes and management of an account in the Crédit foncier. He was called to pay to this company nearly 7 billion Cfa Francs representing damages and interests, and a billion to the State of Cameroon.