Court to try fugitive ex-minister Ambassa Zang

More than one year after it issued an international warrant of arrest with no result, the special criminal court (SCC) will now open the embezzlement trial of the fugitive former minister of public works and law maker Ambassa Zang, the court said. The trial will begin in Yaounde on 20 August.

Zang, who became a lawmaker in 2007 after leaving the government, fled the country five years ago just before the board of the National Assembly met to lift his parliamentary immunity so that he could answer criminal charges.

He is believed to have sought and obtained political asylum in France. At one time, he was thought to be in Canada and at another time in Belgium. In the intro of an interview he gave them in 2012, Le Messager described his whereabouts as “somewhere in the wide world”.

A budget and financial disciplinary committee accused the former minister and ardent supporter of President Paul Biya’s ruling party of embezzling CFA 4 billion meant for works on the Wouri and Sanaga bridges. He denied the allegations and suggested that they were politically motivated in a 2012 interview. When asked why he fled the country, he said: “I am not on the run. I am a victim”.

Jean Robert Mengue Meka, the former secretary-general at the ministry of public works and a former aide to Zang was arrested in 2013 and is currently in pretrial detention at the Kondegui central prison in Yaounde.

Zang is very likely to be tried and sentenced in absentia, paving the way for a herculean process of trying to have him arrested and extradited from wherever he is, said our legal analyst. He is the most senior public official wanted for corruption to be on the run.

About a dozen former ministers, lawmakers and a former prime minister have either been jailed or still awaiting trial in an anti-corruption drive going back to 2006. The process has been tainted by allegations of underlying political motivations, which the government denies.