(Ecofin Agency) - The Special Criminal Court (SCC), a special court established to try any person suspected of misappropriating public funds, just convicted Charles Metouck which was the ex-head of National Refinery Company (SONARA) for 11 years, to 15 years of imprisonment. Pronounced on 21 October 2015 in Yaoundé, this verdict declares Mr. Metouck guilty of embezzling more than 500 million FCFA while being the head of SONARA.

This is the second condemnation Charles Metouck gets in two years. Truly, the former Director General of SONARA has already been convicted to 9 years of imprisonment in April 2013, 23^rd, for documents destruction. Few months prior to this conviction, three days before being sacked, he was indeed caught red-handed destroying some important documents, reckoned the judges.

Not only did he deny destroying documents belonging to the firm, Mr. Metouck also presented a document signed by the Chairman of SONARA’s board of directors which authorized him to join its office for a work session with its successor on the day of the incident.

Behind bars of the Buéa central prison since then, Charles Metouck was later transferred to the central prison of Yaoundé on 8th May 2013 after he was summoned by the SCC. This jurisdiction at the time referred to charges laid against Metouck in a report by Superior State Audit on SONARA’s management.

Published in February 2013, this report accused SONARA’s former Director General to have caused the Cameroonian refinery financial losses of up to 26 billion FCFA through various mismanagement acts (20 in all). For these, he was stripped of his position as the head of the company for 7 years and the sentence pronounced on the 21^st October against Mr. Metouck concerned only a part of his case.

BRM