Yaounde: Court Gives Yves Fotso Another Life Sentence

Yves Michel Fotso, the former General Manager of the defunct national carrier, Cameroon Airlines, Camair, will probably go down in the annals of the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde as the first accused to receive two life sentences in less than a week. After being sentenced to life imprisonment on April 25, 2016, for embezzling 32.4 billion FCFA in Phase II of the two corruption trials before the court, he was again slammed another life sentence on April 29, 2016, in Phase I of the trial. This time around, Fotso was accused of embezzling over 10 billion FCFA between 2000 and 2002. 

Yves Michel Fotso and all five of his counsel were absent in court, having decided last February not to attend any more hearings, alleging deliberate attempts by court officials to prevent them from having a fair hearing. Delivering the ruling, the leader of the trial team, Mr. Justice Francis Claude Moukouri, ordered the confiscation of about 12 of Michel Fosto's frozen accounts in both local and foreign banks. He is also to pay 9 billion FCFA to the State as compensation for losses caused by the embezzlement, and 958 million FCFA as the cost of the trial.

Cameroon Tribune