The Special Criminal Court acquitted Drs Chia Rose, Maurice Feuzeu, Hubert Wang and Okalla Abodo, on Monday August 12, 2013. The Special Criminal Court, SCC, yesterday August 12, 2013 slammed a 20-year jail sentence to former Public Health Minister, Urbain Olanguena Awono for acting in complicity to embezzle the sum of over FCFA 80 million in an unexecuted public contract to supply treated mosquito bed nets to the Malaria Control Programme in 2004.

Mr. Justice Francis Moukoury's ruling also included a life sentence for the Manager of Vision Sarl Company, Nsoe Mbella Yves Rodrigues, for fraudulently obtaining payment of the FCFA 80 million without supplying the mosquito bed nets, while the former stores accountant in Olanguena's cabinet, Onana Belibi Timothé, received a 10-year jail term for facilitating the payment of the unexecuted contract. Meanwhile, Drs Maurice Feuzeu, Chia Rose, Hubert Wang and Okalla Abodo were acquitted.

The accused were tried for embezzlement of various sums that summed up to FCFA 287 million meant for different programmes funded by government, the Global Fund and the World Bank to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis between 2002 and 2006.

In a full courtroom yesterday, presiding Judge, Mr Justice Francis Moukoury, said Nsoe Mbella orchestrated the embezzlement of FCFA 80 million through the payment of a public contract he failed to execute. "Documentary evidence and his confessions while in detention attest that he collected the entire sum without delivering," stated the presiding judge, adding that Nsoe Mbella's prison break and flight confirmed his refusal to face justice.

For Urbain Olanguena Awono, the judge held that he endorsed the unexecuted Vision Sarl Contract as his signature on payment vouchers attested. Furthermore, Francis Moukoury said Olanguena did not rescind the contract when the 60-day delivery period expired, "showing his collusion with Nsoe Mbella". In same vein, the court held Onana Belibi whose signatures also appeared on the payment decisions, as guilty of complicity in the embezzlement punished by Sections 74 and 184 (1), amongst others, of the Penal Code.

On the other hand, the court held prosecution had not sufficiently proved that Dr. Feuzeu Maurice, former permanent secretary of the AIDS Control Programme had earned undue financial benefits and paid undue mission allowances amounting to FCFA 22 million. Meanwhile, Dr Okalla Abodo, ex-permanent secretary of the Malaria Control Programme sufficiently justified expenses worth FCFA 67 million and convinced the court that he took steps to establish that his signature had been forged in the mosquito bed nets contract scam. Dr Chia Rose of the South West AIDS Control Provincial Technical Group and Dr Hubert Wang of the Tuberculosis Control Programme were both acquitted for having justified expenses worth FCFA 158 million and FCFA 13 million, respectively during proceedings.

The verdict that also included an arrest warrant for Nsoe Mbella and an FCFA 80 million as damages to the State, authorised the convicted to petition the Supreme Court for judicial review with 48 hours.