SONARA Trial: Metouck charged with embezzling FCFA 514 million

The former SONARA GM and four others appeared before the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde on February 18, 2015.

The trial of the former General Manager of the National Oil Refinery, SONARA, and four others accused of embezzling over FCFA 514 million, began at the Yaounde-based Special Criminal Court, SCC on Wednesday, February 18, 2015.

It is presided by the President of the SCC, Mr. Justice Yap Abdou, alongside Justices Louis Claude Nyassa and Nina Galina, with Justices Tagiyin and Adebada as Advocates General.

The accused were initially Charles Metouck and former SONARA staffers, Ngalle Mouelle Noé, Edinguele Edinguele Jean Joule, Dikoume Albert Léonard and Tiako Etienne. The five were accused of aiding and abetting the embezzlement of over FCFA 108 million.

The amount was reportedly fraudulently retained from the signing by SONARA of a service contract with EDC, a Lome-Togo-based firm. Meanwhile, over FCFA 406 million, being taxes due to the State, was allegedly fraudulently retained by the accused.

The second example of jurisprudence was set at the Special Criminal Court on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, after one of the accused, Tiako Etienne, had corruption proceedings against him stopped. The decision followed the reimbursement by Tiako of FCFA 108 million in January 2015, the amount he and others were accused of jointly embezzling.

However, the court refused to stop proceedings against other people accused alongside Tiako Etienne, even though he had paid for all of them. The trial has since continued with witnesses for the prosecution taking the box.