The former Minister of Water and Energy appeared at the Special Criminal Court on December 17, 2019 for the case between him Basile Atangana Kouna versus the State of Cameroon.
During the hearing, the former Minister of Water and Energy (Minee) insisted on reimbursing the money for which he is being tried. As at the very first hearing, the State of Cameroon opposed this request from the respondent.
The prosecution also requested an adjournment of the trial. The next hearing will take place on February 5, 2020, for the restitution request by counsel of the accused Basile Atangana Kouna.
Barrister Ayissi Atangana and her fellow counsel for Basile Atangana Kouna insisted that their client wanted and is willing to return the proceeds of his crime. They even handed over to the Court, the document containing the account numbers, concerning the methods of payment, which were submitted at the secretariat of the prosecutor.
Note that in addition to the refusal of the State, Cameroon Water Utilities (Camwater) through the voice of its counsel also opposed the request of the former Minister of water and energy to return the proceeds reasons being that it is on the fringes of the law.
Barrister Tchankou, lawyer for Camwater, pointed out that these assets no longer belong to the accused, once they have been seized by the competent courts.
It should be recalled that Basile Atangana Kouna had requested a partial release in exchange to disclose part of his bank accounts. And the amount he wants to return is estimated at just over 1 billion CFA francs. The lawyer for the State of Cameroon had asked the court to refuse this request because “one cannot use the detention of public property which the investigating judge presumed to be unlawful and asked the court to have the accused sort his way out of justice ”.
Adapted from Actu Cameroun