Victor Tambang’s Case Returns To TCS

Hearing on the matter has been adjourned to November 7, for the prosecution to produce its witnesses.

The second case between the State of Cameroon represented by the Ministry of Justice against the former Registrar-inChief of the Bamenda Court of First Instance, Victor Tambang Mbang Menji has appeared for the second time in front of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) in Yaounde. Some two years ago, the SCC rejected its competence to hear the matter. After an appeal at the Supreme Court in Yaounde, the court ruled for SCC to hear the matter filed against Victor Tambang. He was declared guilty and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court on May 10, 2013 after accusations of misappropriating and attempting to misappropriate public funds. He appeared in front of the same court last Monday October 23, 2017 to answer accusations for embezzling over FCFA 60 million amongst other offences.

A committal order made by an Examining Magistrate of the Mezam High Court in the North West Region charges him again before the Special Criminal Court with the offence of misappropriating the sum of FCFA 67,579,737 belonging to the State of Cameroon. This is an offence contrary to and punishable under section 184 (1) (a) of the Penal Code. The Head of the panel of Judges hearing the case, Mr Justice Rene Lucien Eyango said the hearing could not begin since the accused person’s counsel was not on time at the court session and the Legal Department is yet to produce the list of its witnesses. As such, the matter was adjourned to November, 7, 2017.

The court session that lasted less than 10 minutes permitted other partie...