The State Attorney and the Ministry of Forestry Vs MIKA MIKA Richard, MIKA MIKA Blanchard, LUILE Bosco, WATALO Lambert and MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne

Country
Territorial subdivision
Type of court
Seat of court
Bertoua
Court jurisdiction
Date of opinion
2020
Abstract

The accused persons MIKA MIKA Richard, MIKA MIKA Blanchard, LUILE Bosco, WATALO Lambert and MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne were arrested in Salapoumbe by forces of law and order and summoned before the Military Court, Bertoua to respond to charges against them. According to the investigation report, LUILE Bosco discovered a packet of bullets of type 7062mm x 39 which he handed to WATALO Lambert. The latter in turn gave two of the bullets to MIKA MIKA Richard to hunt bushmeat. Unfortunately on his way, he was arrested by forces of law and order who discovered on him the two bullets. At same time, MIKA MIKA Blanchard was arrested with a 458-caliber hunting gun he collected from MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne which he used to kill three (03) elephants. The gun uses same bullets as those found on MIKA MIKA Richard. During preliminary investigation, MIKA MIKA Richard, MIKA MIKA Blanchard, LUILE Bosco and WATALO Lambert pleaded guilty while MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne pleaded not guilty. MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne in his inconsistent testimony to elude justice, continuously deny all charges and that he does not know any of the co-accused persons whom they accused to have carried out the hunting on his behalf and using his gun. The co-accused persons’ testimony was corroborated by a third party MALEMO Mario, who affirmed at the preliminary investigation that the accused MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne had formed a team of hunters led by MIKA MIKA Blanchard to whom he entrusted the gun. At the end of investigations, they were transmitted together with the seized items before the State Attorney for prosecution.

Language of document
French
Reference number
No. 084/2020 of 27 August 2020
Charges
Illegal detention and carriage of a war arm and ammunitions, attempted killing of partially protected animal species, killing of totally protected animal species, complicity, and lack of a national identity card.
Transnational
No
Decision
All accused persons were found guilty as charged.
Appealed
No
Penalty
The court were sentenced MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne to one (01) year suspended imprisonment term within three years and to pay 500,000 XAF for fines. The court were sentenced MIKA MIKA Richard, MIKA MIKA Blanchard, LUILE Bosco and WATALO Lambert to two (02) years suspended imprisonment term within five years and to pay 50,000 XAF for fines each. All accused persons were sentenced to pay 103,173 XAF for cost. For civil damages, MELOUOL MGBEMA Dieudonne was sentenced to pay 520,635 XAF and the other accused persons to pay 70,635 XAF each to the State of Cameroon through the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.
Legislation cited
Law no.81/13 of 27 November 1981 on forestry, wildlife and fisheries regulations