Five witnesses have been shortlisted to defend Iya Mohammed, the former director general of the Society for the development of cotton (Sodecoton).

The list of these individuals was transmitted recently to members of the collegiality by Me Eugene Balemaken, the Council of the former president of Fecafoot. The hearing, which was held at the special criminal courts was devoted to the communication of lists of witnesses for the civil party as well as the defense.

The seven ex-executives of Sodecoton are prosecuted for misappropriation of public funds of more than 11 billion CFA francs apart from Iya Mohamed and Lucien Fotso, the ex-chief accounting officer of Sodecoton in provisional detention at the central prison in Yaounde since June 2013.

The council of Jerome Minlend, the ex-accountant accused of diversion of 350 million F. Cfa wished that the attorney general near the TCS dropped the charges against the latter as he stated that his client has returned the body of offense even before the opening of the prosecution.

The attorney general believes that the exception raised by Charles Tchoungang obeys an administrative procedure. Article 11, which created the TCS gives the opportunity to the attorney general to drop the proceedings when the body of the offense is returned.

The same act provides that the attorney general may do so only after the agreement of the Minister of Justice, keeper of the seals. The prosecution witnesses will be interviewed on 1 October 2014.