28, February 2023
Yaoundé: Finance Minister Motaze banned from leaving country amid Martinez Zogo murder inquiry 0
Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze has been banned from leaving the country amid an investigation into his alleged involvement in the assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo.
Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered late today that a prosecutor is seeking charges against Mr Motaze, who has been asked to explain his links with a key suspect in the killing, French Cameroun business tycoon Amougou Belinga.
Records show the two men had multiple phone calls just hours before the assassination, prosecutors say.
Minister Motaze reportedly wrote to Prime Minister Dion Ngute asking for permission to lead a delegation abroad for the signing with Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) whose headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland, an amendment to a contract on the program to secure customs revenues.
Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that on February 23, 2023, the Secretary General at the Prime Minister’s Office wrote to Minister Motaze to inform him that Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute has rejected his request.
Kidnapped during the night of January 17, 2023 in Yaoundé, the journalist and whistleblower Arsène Salomon Mbami Zogo alias Martinez Zogo, was found on January 22, lifeless and his body mutilated.
Motaze’s name and that of Justice Minister Laurent Esso were mentioned during the hearings related to the murder of Martinez Zogo. The Head of State could at any time give his high approval for the auditioning of these two ministers.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
2, March 2023
CPDM Crime Syndicate: Spain court absolves arms firm of graft over contracts with Biya regime 0
A Spanish court on Tuesday absolved defunct state-owned arms company Defex of graft charges related to contracts to provide material to Cameroon.
Defex was accused of using a complex bribery and embezzlement system to secure the contracts in the Central African country between 2005 and 2013.
Spain’s National Court, which deals with major criminal cases, said it found evidence that Defex paid for gifts such as trips and cosmetic surgery to Cameroon officials to secure the contracts.
But it said this happened before Spain’s criminal code was reformed in 2015 to extend criminal responsibility to state companies like Defex, so its ruling “must be to absolve”.
The court, however, sentenced Defex’s former commercial director to a two-year jail sentence for corruption.
Public prosecutors had sought a 23-year jail sentence, but the court absolved him of the charges of forgery, money laundering and embezzlement of public funds.
It said the money which was allegedly embezzled did not belong to Defex, but was from a private bank which financed the projects in Cameroon.
The National Court is investigating two other suspected cases of corruption involving the sale of weapons and military equipment by Defex to the governments of Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Defex was founded in 1972 by the Spanish state to help export products made by the country’s defence industry. It was dissolved in 2017 as a result of the scandal.
Source: AFP