Supreme Court:

Inoni&Mebara to face the Judge Tuesday

- EbongNgolle& Charles Metouck also queue up at TCS

Former PM, Ephraim Inoni

After four years (exactly 40 months) of impatient wait, the former PM, Thomas Ephraim Inoni and former secretary general of the presidency SGPr, AtanganaMebara may finally know their fate. Inoni and Mebara are expected to appear before the judge of the special section of the Supreme Court in charge of cases of embezzlement of state funds, on Tuesday 13 June 2017.

                Their lawyers were served the summons from the Supreme Court on 19 May 2017.

                Inoni and Mebara had earlier been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, by the special criminal court in Yaounde. They were sentenced on 2 October 2013, after they were found guilty of embezzling state funds.

                Despite the court’s judgment, Inoni and Mebara have insisted on their innocence. Reason why their lawyers appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court.

                Though the law gives a maximum period of six months for the Supreme Court to open hearing of such appeals, Inoni and Mebara have had to wait patiently for over 40 months (2 October 2013 to 13 June 2017) for their appeal case to be called up.

                Be if as it may be, Inoni and Mebara are now sure to know their definitive fate in the days ahead that is, once the Supreme Court rules at last and final instance.

                During the initial trial at the Special Criminal Court, Inoni and Mebara pleaded not guilty of jointly and severally embezzling over 287.4 million FCFA, being money they allegedly pocketed in the process of awarding a contract to Aircraft Portfolio Management (APM), the company that was contracted to audit Camair’s leasing contracts way back in 2003. Thus the promoter of the London-based APM, Kelvin walls, was the principal accused in the matter, while Inoni and Mebara were co-accused.

                But that was not all. Inoni and Mebara were also found guilty of siphoning some 1,425bn fcfa being funds they transferred in excess of what was due Ansett Worldwide, an Austrian company that was contracted to repair Camair’s planes. This was also in 2003, when Inoni was the Assistant SG of the Presidency and Mebara the SGPr.

                Concerning the first charge, the judge concluded that in awarding the contract to APM to audit Camair’s plane-hiring contracts, Inoni and Mebara did not respect the law sanctioning public contracts awards in the country.

                “The attribution of the contract to APM did not respect any legal disposition on public contracts awards. There was never any negotiation between the minister of transport (John BegheniNdeh at the time) and APM-London,” said the TCS judge, YAP Abdou, who was only last Wednesday transferred to the Supreme Court as 1st Advocate General.

                Thus Justice Yap Abdou ruled that Inoni and Mebara were jointly guilty of criminal violation of the law on contract awards.

                As for the second charge, Inoni and Mebara were said to have held a meeting with an agent of Ansett Worldwide and agreed with him to fix the debt owed the company by Camair at 12.172 million dollars, up from the 9.815 million dollars that Camair authorities claimed they owed the Austrian company.

                Trying the matter, the TCS judge questioned why Inoni and Mebara kept out the Camair GM, Yves Michel Fotso, from the transaction. He concluded that Inoni and Mebara had colluded to inflate the bill. Yap Abdou went ahead and slammed Inoni and Mebara 20 years imprisonment each.

Shocked by the verdict of the judge, Inoni was reported as exclaiming in court saying: “when I got to Kondengui prison they gave me the bizarre name of “collateral victim,”. Inoni continued that: “still in Kondengui they asked me why I accepted to be born where I was born (qui vous a dit de naitreouvousêtes né?).

                For his part, AtanganaMebara said he was being punished despite his proven innocence. “To hang a dog you must first give it a bad name,” Mebara said, reminding the judges that “nobody can alter another’s destiny.”

                It should be noted that as Inoni and Mebara are expected at the Supreme Court Tuesday, it is the same judge who slammed them 20 years each at the TCS, Yap Abdou, who will now handle their file at the Supreme Court. YAP Abdou was appointed the 1st Advocate General of the Supreme Court, after the Higher Judicial Council of Wednesday 7 June 2017.

Presidential clemency for Inoni?

                However, it is being rumored in some circles here that president Biya has decided to free Inoni, if only to appease the Anglophone community and douse the tension that has gripped the two Anglophone regions for over 7 months running.

                Yet a school of thought holds that freeing Inoni at this time is mere wishful thinking by his supporters. This school of thought argues that the president may decide to grant Inoni clemency only after the Supreme Court would have given its ruling on the appeal case.