Witnesses made known at Sodecoton,Iya Mohammed Case

The various parties communicated their list Wednesday at the second hearing in the special criminal courts.

The candidates in the case includes public prosecutor and State of the Cameroun-Sodecoton against Iya Mohammed, former director general of the Society for the development of Cotton (Sodecoton) and several co-accused at the special criminal courts (TCS): Henri Clavier, deputy general director of the said company, Jerome Minlend, president director general of the cabinet Cameroon audit Council (ACC), Lucien Fotso, accountant, Pierre Kaptene, attaches to direction in Sodecoton, Mahamat Karagama, director of sales and Christophe Mbaiougam, another top framework within this company.

The accused are being prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds in a lump sum amount assessed at more than 11.293 billion F.

At this hearing devoted to the production of the list of witnesses, Iya Mohammed, Lucien Fotso, Jerome Minlend, Mahamat Karagama, Pierre Kaptene responded present with their councils.

Thereupon, the advocate general, Jean Pierre Bikong Mafok, handed over the list of the seven witnesses to the different parties, an attitude that has not been appreciated by the various councils. And the general counsel explained that by this procedure, he wanted to remain closed in the application of the law.

In the same vein, the list communicated by the board of Iya Mohammed who, at the outset had witnesses also, made a request relating to the withdrawal of two witnesses for personal reasons. Sodecoton, for its part, has provided a list of four witnesses, the council of Mahamat Karagama has produced a list of two witnesses whereas that of Minlend Jerome has also produced seven witnesses.

And the chairman Yap Abdou assisted by Onana Michel Jean Claude and Siewe Yvette rejoiced at the quality of the witnesses.

In the course of this hearing, Charles Tchoungang, council of Jerome Minlend, made a motion requesting a stay of proceedings against his client and who has returned the amount for which he has been accused of diversion during the phase of judicial information.

In this regard, the general counsel responded that it was an administrative procedure and non-judicial. "The gallery is not indicated for the judgment of continuation", noted the general counsel. The reactions to this exception are expected at the next hearing. The case has been suspended and will resume 1 October for a replica to possible exceptions raised by the council of Iya Mohammed and the possible hearing of the witnesses for the prosecution.