French Fraud Charge Deny By Cameroonian President “Paul Biya”

Cameroonian President Paul Biya says he is not obliged to answer charges of embezzlement against him in France after it emerged that Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into Biya last week.

Cameroonian National Association, the Union for an Active Diaspora (UDA), opened the case against Biya on 2 November, condemning him of using communal funds to buy major property in France.

A government spokesman said Thursday that Biya had learnt of the case via media reports and added that Biya does not own property in France.

“The government’s reaction is very simple: we declare that the president of the Republic of Cameroon is only answerable to his own people,” said Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary.

UDA is led by Célestin Djamen, a member of main opposition party the Social Democratic Front (SDF).

Biya’s government accuses the UDA of trying to tarnish the president’s image in the lead-up to elections, which are scheduled for October 2011.

Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said “These are the same accusations people used before the 1992 elections and before the 2004 elections.”

Related cases against the presidents of Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have been filed with the French courts in the past two years by various associations.