CAMAIR Trial: Michel Fotso accused of embezzling FCFA 51.4 billion

The former General Manager of Cameroon Airlines faces two trials in the liquidation of the defunct national carrier.

The trial of Yves Michel Fotso, the former General Manager of the defunct Cameroon Airlines, Camair, on the alleged embezzlement of FCFA 18,992,544,727, holding at the Yaounde-based Special Criminal Court, SCC, has been running since November 2014. This is one of the two cases against him in the same court concerning the liquidation of Camair.

Michel Fotso on November 6, 2014, pleaded not guilty to charges of fraudulently obtaining FCFA 18.9 billion between 2000 and 2002. The suit, filed by Camair’s Liquidation Committee and the State of Cameroon, concerns FCFA 4,051,209,866, FCFA 4,606,130,515, and FCFA 8,934,203,742, all compensation for the famous Boeing 747 ‘Combi’ aircraft as well as FCFA 1,400,000,000, the worth of the wreck of the aircraft. In the other case, Yves Michel Fotso is accused of embezzling FCFA 32,444,316,370.

The trial took a twist on Wednesday March 4, 2015, when his lawyers pointed out that Fotso’s detention warrant expired in April 2014. Barrister Dominique Inchauspe argued that according to the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code, a temporary detention warrant can only be extended for a maximum period of 12 months, giving a total of 18 months.

Concerning Fotso’s request to reimburse in kind in the other case, counsel for the accused have been arguing that in the first phase of the same trial, an agreement was already reached between the accused and the Legal Department. Thus, it was not simply the mentioning of intention to reimburse, but honouring the agreement to do so by already paying in FCFA 250 million, they pointed out.

They said their client did not continue with the reimbursement because his bank accounts were frozen, but he had offered to pay in kind by offering his home in Bandjoun in the West Region. The former Camair GM’s counsel therefore pleaded with the court to defreeze his accounts in order to enable him continue with the reimbursement. The two trials, though related, are still going on at the SCC.