TCS: Prosecutor rejects Fotso’s house

The offer of restitution of corpus delicti (sum which he is accused of embezzling) by Yves Michel Fotso has been rejected by the Special Criminal Court.

The prosecutor of the court stated yesterday May 25, 2015 that the restitution of proposed by Mr. Yves Michel Fotso is not legally justified.

“The accused must take all necessary measures to effectively reoccur the form of the crime in this case and consequently the stay can be decided in his favor", said the public prosecutor's representative.

This has resulted in a rejection which has brought together the lawyers of the State of Cameroon and those of the Camair liquidation.

The prosecution then demanded a refund in cash because they did not want the house of Yves Michel Fotso. So they met with Yves Michel Fotso’s lawyers.

"It is unthinkable that Yves Michel Fotso could offer something different from the moment his bank accounts were blocked by the TCS judge. The settlement agreement signed between Yves Michel Fotso and the liquidator of Camair provided that payment will be made in accordance with the return procedure issued by the TCS.

Thus the procedure provided for the reimbursement will be in cash and repayment in kind. We firmly reiterate our offer of restitution and ask the Court to suspend the investigation of this case until the justice minister say otherwise”, retorted Mr. Michael Buehler, the German lawyer of Yves Michel Fotso.

Two billion CFA francs

Contrarily, considering that this application for suspension of a decision made was not justified, the general prosecutor of TCS and the lawyers for the plaintiff requested that the trial take its normal course.

"The Yves Michel restitution offer is addressed to the Minister of Justice and not the prosecution of TCS which is simply the channel through which our application is forwarded to the Minister of Justice. Prosecutors acted as if the Minister of Justice has already refused this offer”.

“But the Minister of Justice had no choice but to stop the proceedings if not he would exhaust this Tribunal to the very quintessence. I am convinced that he will stop the proceedings. We asked you to state the proceedings pending the decision of the Minister of Justice”, insisted Me Achet, one of Cameroonian lawyers of Yves Michel Fotso.

The collegiality of judges chaired by Ms. Eloundou set the matter under advisement for June 8, 2015 to decide on the stay of execution of this procedure.

Indeed, the State of Cameroon and the liquidation of Camair demanded 69 billion CFA francs from Yves Michel Fotso, the Cbc, Bombardier, Chanas and others. After confrontations and as part of a settlement agreement concluded between the liquidator of the Camair, Emile Christian Bekolo and Yves Michel Fotso, th amount was reduced to 20 billion CFA francs.

Under the agreement, Yves Michel Fotso alone owes two billion CFA francs, the amount on which he traded with the liquidator. The MoU now imputes to him the alteration of 2 billion CFA francs.

An amount to which he agreed to return in August 2013 against the stay of proceedings as provided in that protocol. By the time the case was opened before the TCS in February 2015, Yves Michel Fotso paid only 665 million CFA francs.

He is to settle 1,085 billion CFA francs. However, following the closure of his bank accounts in September and October 2013 by the judge of instruction, Annie Noëlle Bahounoui (who led the criminal investigation of the Camair case), Yves Michel Fotso said he was unable to repay in cash the remaining money.

It was then that his ‘restitution offer’ submitted to the Attorney General at the TCS on April 24, 2015 disclosed that he agreed to offer his residence in Bandjoun (his native village) to the Cameroon State.

Appraised by Mr. Ayissi Bessala who is a certified court expert in real estate and land evaluation, the villa with swimming pool built in 1996 is estimated at more than 1.08 billion CFA francs .