Ngongang Yves Marie sentenced to 12 years in prison

The judgement was passed on Tuesday June 30, 2015, at the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde.

The Special Criminal Court has declared Ngongang Yves Marie, FCFA former Chief of Post, Identification Office at the Immigration office in the Centre Region, guilty of embezzling state funds in the case pitting the State of Cameroon and the Delegation of National Security (DGSN) against him.

Yves Marie is accused of embezzling FCFA 171 million between 2011 and 2014 when he was head of the identification office. The hearing before a panel of judges led by Justice Eloundou Virginie began with the verification of the prosecution and the defence counsels.

Reading the judgement Mrs Justice Eloundou Virgine revisited the Committal Order of the Examining Magistrate’s Chambers January 2015, bringing the case to the Special Criminal Court. According to the Committal Order Ngongang Yves Marie former Chief of CE 13 based in the Emi Immigration building in Yaounde was accused of embezzling administrative funds which have enormous financial prejudices to the Delegation of National Security.

The embezzlement was noticed following a control carried out in the identification office on January 20 to 24, 2015. The team mandated by the System CENAC first noticed that equipment worth FCFA 10, 230 had disappeared.

In the same identification, 247 forms were missing and could not be justified by the chief of post. Ngongang Yves Marie however admitted the deficit of FCFA 10 million and he reimbursed FCFA 4,790,000 on January 25, 2014. Concerning the 247 missing forms Ngongang Yves Marie recognised the disappearance of the forms and asked that he should be given some days to trace the forms.

In a second investigation, it was discovered that more forms were missing. Ngongang Yves Marie received forms for identification; issued receipts but did not give identity cards. Still in this carton, it was noticed that many applicants had the same receipts, but did not have identity cards. The cost of forms for residence permits ranges from FCFA 30,000 to FCFA 700,000.

Mrs. Justice Eloundou Virginie said the court found Ngongang guilty of embezzling FCFA 171 million. While invoking mitigating circumstances, Barrister Gaëtan Batindy, Counsel for Ngongang Yves Marie pleaded mitigating circumstances for Ngongang Yves Marie and prayed that he be given minimum sentence as opposed to the maximum sentence requested by the Legal Department.

The court then handed down judgement. The accused was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Ngangang Yves Marie will have to pay justice fee of FCFA 5 million.