Etoundi Oyono fails to appear in Special Criminal Court

Emmanuel Etoundi Oyono was not present at the Special Criminal Court (SCC) on January 8, 2016.

The Director General of the Autonomous Port of Douala (PAD) was expected by the judges to rule on two cases of alleged embezzlement of public funds to the tune of FCFA 105 million.

Le Jour of January 11, 2016, sets out the reasons for the lurch of former DG of MAETUR. According to the newspaper, Etoundi Oyono's lawyers said that they "went to meet the judge, Annie Noëlle Bahounoui, to show prove of 'physical disability' preventing 'their client to answer his last convocation at the Special Criminal Court."

Approached by the newspaper, Barrister Nouga, one of three lawyers of Etoundi Oyono says: "Currently our client is recovering. The record for which he was summoned to the SCC is quite strong. This requires his full physical capabilities in order to defend himself properly. However, his condition did not allow him to respond to an interrogation session that may be long. So we asked a hearing report to the investigating judge."

The request was not possible to oppose an end of inadmissibility since the respondent had not even made the trip. This is a first missed appointment for Etoundi Oyono with the law.

Le Jour notes that "this is the third convocation from the investigating judge which Etoundi Oyono has missed. The first call was in September 2015. He had produced a mission order to justify this absence (...). Upon the occurrence of the second convocation from Annie Noëlle Bahounoui, Etoundi Oyono is sick. His lawyers, this time, produced medical documents to certify health concerns that kept the Director General of PAD in care abroad." The PAD DG returned to the country, but then still cannot defend himself.

As a reminder, the CPDM activist is accused by the Cameroonian company of debt collection, of which he was the CEO, to have issued false certificates to Mr. Tessa for a debt of 60 million CFA francs.

In the other case, Camercrus, a company specialized in fishing and fish products, filed a complaint against Etoundi Oyono for swindling under the agreement signed with the PAD on May 21, 2012, the sum of FCFA 45 million.