Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Justice for Sale or Legal Realpolitik? The Special Criminal Court Sets Legal Precedent in the Yves-Michel Fotso Embezzlement Case

By Dibussi Tande

On January 14, 2013, Cameroon’s Special Criminal Court created legal precedent when it dropped all charges case against Yves-Michel Fotso, the former Camair Director, who was on trial for embezzling 230 million Francs CFA from the Cameroon Airport Management Authority (ADC).

The charges were dropped midway into the trial after Fotso refunded the 230 million Francs CFA he was accused of embezzling. His co-accused, Roger Ntongo Onguene, the former Director General of ADC, who was charged with embezzling an additional 316 million Francs CFA from the authority, is now left to face the music alone.

BBJ-2 Affair: Marafa Yaya and Yves Michel Fosto Sentenced to 25 Years in Jail

After a marathon session which began yesterday at 2 pm, the Mfoundi High court finally gave its verdict early this morning in the case of The Government of Cameroon vs. Marafa Hamidou Yaya, Fotso Michel Yves, Kounda Julienne, Sandjon Geneviève, Chapuis Jean-Louis, Assene Nkou.

All the accused received heavy sentences ranging from 10 to 25 years:

• Marafa Hamidou Yaya, Yves Michel Fotso and  Jean-Marie Assene Nkou - 25 years.
• Jean-Marie Chapuis, former CEO of the Fotso-owned Commercial Bank Cameroon (CBC), and his collaborator Genevieve Sandjon - 15 years.
• Julienne Kounda, former Assistant CEO of CBC - 10 years.

They must jointly pay 21 billion Francs CFA ($42 million) in damages and interest to the state plus more than 1 billion Francs CFA ($2 million) in costs.

Click here for an overview of this particular aspect of the presidential planes affair commonly known as the BBJ-2 affair.

The Presidential Plane(s) Affair for Dummies – A Cheat Sheet on the Key Players and the Main Issues

By Dibussi Tande

With the verdict in the Marafa/Fotso case scheduled for tomorrow, here's a quick look at the key issues and players in the presidential aircraft cases...

A decade after it all began, very few people can confidently and/or correctly explain what the “Albatross Affair” or the “presidential plane affair” is all about.

Scenes reminiscent of the 1971 Ndongmo-Ouandie trial - Marafa Yaya arrives in court under heavy military escort. (c) Patrice Nganang

With the passage of time, the story has merged with fiction to become a complex, convoluted and confusing urban legend. However, at the heart of it all is a fairly straightforward story, albeit with numerous sub-plots, of how an attempt to buy an aircraft for the President of Cameroon via unorthodox channels resulted in a very tangled web of poor financial judgment, appalling managerial incompetence, a complete lack of oversight, financial impropriety, political intrigue, and to crown it all, a series teleguided judicial proceedings.

New Twist in Presidential Plane Case: Yves Michel Fotso Sues President Biya in the United States

By Dibussi Tande

In yet another twist to the already convoluted Presidential aircraft saga, Yves Michel Fotso, the former Director General of Camair, who is currently in jail for his role in the alleged swindling of $31 million meant for the purchase of presidential aircraft, has filed a lawsuit against the Republic of Cameroon and President Biya in the United States District Court in Eugene, Oregon.

In the case of YVES MICHAEL FOTSO vs. Republic of Cameroon, Paul Biya, Pascal Magnaguemabe, Justice Soh, Jean Baptiste Bokam, Colonel Amadou, and Innocent Mbouem, the plaintiff documents instances of degrading treatment and torture, first during his detention in the Kondengui Maximum security prison  in Yaounde between December 1, 2010 and May 25, 2012, and later, in the Gendarmerie lock-up at the Secretaire d’Etat a la Defense (“SED”) where he was, among other things, "beaten, kicked, shocked with electricity, and otherwise subjected to physical and emotional torture by hooded soldiers."

 Fotso is seeking punitive damages in the amount of $10,000,000 for torture by a public official, false imprisonment, and breach of contract.

Click here to read, print or download an actual copy of the lawsuit filed in the District Court in Eugene, Oregon (pdf)

UPDATE:

Click here to read, print or download the summons issued to President Paul Biya and co-defendants

Was the Albatross an Airworthy Aircraft or a "Flying Coffin"? Part II

By Dibussi Tande

In Part I of this two-part article, we focused on the narrative of the Investigating Judge in charge of the Albatross case, along with the sworn testimony of the Albatross flight crew and members of the President’s personal military staff to disprove repeated claims that the Albatross had a catastrophic technical breakdown during its maiden flight to Paris, and that this may have been the handiwork of individuals intent on harming the President and his family.

Homeward bound! The "Albatros" taxis from the Delta facility in Atlanta on her delivery flight to Cameroon (April 22, 2004). (c) R.W. Whitlock.

In this second and last part, we will look at the actual condition of the Albatross at the time of its delivery to Cameroonian officials. Was this “second hand” aircraft safe and airworthy, or was it really an “old bucket,” a “flying coffin” leased by corrupt or negligent government officials who wanted to get rich off the deal? To answer this question, we will refer to the reports of the team of Cameroonian experts, including members of the President’s personal military staff, who performed the technical inspection of the Albatross in the US before it left for Cameroon. We will also get Boeing's official position about the airworthiness of the aircraft.

Was the Albatross a "Flying Coffin" that Put President Biya’s Life in Danger? (Part 1)

By Dibussi Tande

Beyond legitimate questions about the guilt or innocence of all the individuals arrested in the Albatross affair, or concerns about the “instrumentalization” of the justice system for purposes of “political cleansing”, there is one element in  this complex and convoluted story that everyone seems to agree on, albeit in varying degrees, i.e., that in a bid to swindle money, government officials colluded to purchase an ageing and defective presidential aircraft which put President Biya’s life in danger during the aircraft’s maiden flight from Yaounde to Paris.

The Nose of the "Albatros" (c) Steve Hill

For example, The Post newspaper recently described the Albatross as "an old bucket that rattled Biya", while François Mattei, author of Le Code Biya, a praise book commissioned by the Biya regime, was more scathing, labeling the aircraft as a "Flying Coffin" – a view shared by newspapers such as l’Independent, which claims that « l'Albatros était tout simplement un cercueil volant destiné à tuer le chef de l'Etat et toute sa famille. » (The Albatross was simply a flying coffin meant to kill the Head of State and his entire family). Although it did not go this far, even Le Messager once described the Albatross’ maiden flight as “pénible et émouvant” (painful and emotional)… 

Albatross Affair: Prof. Ndiva Kofele-Kale to Lead Marafa Yaya's Defense Team

In a press briefing organized in Buea on May 25, 2012, Ndiva Kofele-Kale, a Professor of Public International Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, announced that he would be leading the defense of Hamidou Marafa Yaya, Cameroon's former Minister of Interior, who is accused of having embezzled funds meant to purchase a presidential aircraft for Cameroon's Head of State, Paul Biya.

Professor Kofele-Kale who is a leading scholar on the impact of corruption in developing countries and has been at the forefront of the growing movement to make corruption a human rights violation punishable under international law, has issued a statement explaining why he has taken up  Marafa's case. Here is the statement in its entirety:

Albatross Affair: Mebara Found Not Guilty on Three of Five Charges

By Dibussi Tande

The Mfoundi High Court this evening, May 3, 2012, found Mr. Atangana Mebara, former Secretary-General at the Presidency, not guilty of three of the five charges against him in the "Albatross Affair", the botched attempt to purchase a presidential aircraft for president Biya.

Frontpage of tomorrow's Le Jour newspaper

 The High Court found Mr. Mebara not guilty of the attempt to jointly embezzle $31 million with Kevin Walls, CEO of the London-based Airport Portfolio Management (APM), and Essomba Otele, head of APM’s Cameroon subsidiary, Asset Portfolio Management (APM).

Former Minister of State Atangana Mebara in His Own Words: How I Ended Up in Kondengui

Culled from Atangana Mebara, Jean-Marie. 2011. Lettres d'ailleurs: dévoilements préliminaires d'une prise de l'Epervier du Cameroun. Paris: Harmattan.

On August 1, 2008, Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara, former the Minister of Higher Education, former Secretary-General at the Presidency, and former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, was remanded into custody for his role in the "Albatross Affair", the botched attempt to purchase an aircraft for President Biya. In December 2011, the Paris-based l’Harmattan published Mebara's book « Lettres d’ailleurs, Dévoilements préliminaires d’une prise de l’épervier du Cameroun ». (Letters from elsewhere: Preliminary revelations of a catch of the Cameroonian Sparrow hawk). Prefaced by Cardinal Tumi, the book consists of a series of letters to his family, friends, and public personalities. In one of the letters to his daughter, he goes at length into the circumstances of his arrest, including his first days behind bars at the Kondengui maximum security prison.  Here is an excerpt:

Peeking Beneath the Veil of the Albatross: Why Inoni and Marafa are in Jail

By Dibussi Tande

Even though it was not completely unexpected, the arrest of  Chief Inoni Ephraim, former Prime Minister and Head of Government, and Hamidou Marafa Yaya, former Minister of State in Charge of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, is a bombshell that is still reverberating across the Cameroonian political landscape.

According to reports by the State-owned CRTV, both men had showed up at the offices of investigative judge Pascal Magnaguemabe for what was expected to be a routine encounter, but were instead bundled off to the Kondengui Maximum security prison in the latest chapter of the decade-long probe into the Albatross Affair, or the botched attempt to purchase a brand new aircraft for President Biya – a dizzying fall from grace of two “golden boys” of the Biya regime who were once considered (particularly in the case of Marafa) potential heirs to the octogenarian Paul Biya.

Albatross Affair: A Profile of Ephraim Inoni and Hamidou Marafa

In a Febraury 2007 cable from the US embassy in Yaounde which profiled  "possible successors to President Biya" the then Prime Minister of the Republic, Ephraim Inoni, and the then Minister of State for Territorial Administration, Hamidou Marafa, were classfied under the category of "clean, competent and well-positioned" individuals with a shot at succeeding President Biya. Today, both men are behind bars, accused of embezzlement of state funds in the Albatross saga.

With the benefit of hindsight, let's read what US ambassador Niels Marquardt thought of both men.