Mounoume sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by the SCC

It was a decisive and highly anticipated hearing but drowned in the news by the state visit of François Hollande, President of the French Republic on Friday, July 3.

Nevertheless, the Special Criminal Court (SCC) held on the same Friday as planned, a decisive hearing in the case of embezzlement of public funds between the government of Cameroon and the former Director General of the Autonomous Port of Douala (Pad), Jean Marcel Dayas Mounoume and company.

According to a source in SCC in Yaounde, the Tribunal effectively delivered its verdict late last Friday, July 3 in the matter which falls within the framework of the Operation Sparrowhawk.

The same source states that the main accused, Marcel Dayas Mounoume, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. He pleaded not guilty and let his lawyers plead his case before the judges. Our source said, once the verdict was passed, Marcel Dayas Mounoume was immediately arrested from his home located in the Bali neighbourhood in Douala. "On Saturday morning, (July 4, note), he was en route to the Kondengui prison in Yaounde," says our source.

We will return with the details of the entire verdict of the TCS and the number of persons convicted in the case. Besides Dayas Mounoume, former Governor of the Littoral Region and Chairman of the Board of the Pad, Francis Fai Yengo and several other officials were also prosecuted in this case.