The arms company DEFEX assures in the trial that the State supported the alleged irregular contracts in Cameroon

It highlights its role in the national defense strategy, taking advantage of the presence in the court of the magistrate and former Minister Campo

MADRID, 2 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The semi-public arms company DEFEX has asked this Wednesday not to be among those accused in the trial that is being carried out in the National High Court for alleged irregularities to obtain awards in Cameroon, considering that it would be exempt from guilt because the contracts investigated are prior to the introduction of the responsibility of legal persons in the Penal Code, at the same time that it has ensured that the State supported these sales.

His lawyer has requested the annulment of the order to open the oral trial, pointing out that DEFEX, in the process of dissolution since 2017 for alleged cases of corruption, is "exempt from responsibility at the time the facts subject to accusation are in force."

For DEFEX, of the five contracts subject to accusation in this first trial, three were prior to the end of 2010, when the criminal liability of legal persons came into force.

The lawyer has added that the other two contracts were before 2015, the year in which a new wording was given to the article in question and that until then the State, the public administrations and the state-owned commercial companies that carried out public functions of interest to the overall economy.

Its defense, in the processing of previous questions, has emphasized precisely its role as "a commercial state company that executes public policies of interest to the general economy."

"They had the guarantee of the Spanish State, which was behind these contracts, supported them in obtaining the necessary insurance and financing for the development of these sales and these projects, provided logistical support and, what is fundamental, the image that the State was behind that commercialization", he pointed out.

DEFEX's defense argued at the beginning of the trial that the semi-public company participated in "promoting the national arms and defense material industry, dynamizing and encouraging commercial activity" in a "strategic sector", which "results" in said, "in the interest of one's own national security".

In addition, he has taken advantage of the fact that Judge Juan Carlos Campo, Minister of Justice between 2020 and 2021, is in court to emphasize the impact of this company on the Spanish defense strategy since 1972, achieving contracts such as lighting and security of the pyramids of Egypt, under investigation in another piece of the case.

"We have in this room an illustrious magistrate who has participated in the deliberations of the Council of Ministers and is well-versed, a qualified observer, of what the national defense strategy represents for a State in foreign and domestic policy," he explained. mentioning the former minister.

And he has stressed that within the board of directors of this company there is room for ministries such as Foreign Affairs, Industry, Defense or Interior, and he has been interested in removing it from the bench and being able to act as a private prosecution, as a victim, indicating that a new management discovered alleged criminal acts.

As an alternative petition in the event that the court does not accept the complete nullity, DEFEX has requested that the three contracts prior to the reform of the Penal Code of 2010 be excluded.

His lawyer has in turn demanded that the accusation of money laundering be eliminated, stressing that the law "excludes or limits" the criminal responsibility of criminal organizations. "The rest of legal entities, such as DEFEX, are excluded", she has defended.

The National Court sits the semi-public company and its former commercial director Manuel Iglesias on the bench today for the alleged contracting and invoicing carried out to obtain public contracts irregularly in Cameroon through the payment of illicit commissions to authorities and officials of that country .

For these alleged facts, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office requests that the former commercial director of DEFEX and two other defendants be sentenced to between 18 and 23 years in prison, the president of the commercial Grupo Aresa Internacional, Óscar López, and the commercial director of Deimos Space SLU, Francisco Luque.

They are tried for alleged crimes of corruption in international business transactions, embezzlement of public funds, money laundering and document falsification in this piece of the so-called 'Defex case', which is pending other trials for corrupt practices in Angola or Saudi Arabia .

As in other chapters of the 'DEFEX case', the payment of commissions, gifts and gifts to intermediaries and officials of the country would have been implemented to ensure the award of contracts. This in a context in which the company lacked "any internal system of organization, supervision and control of the actions of its directors that entailed a commitment of income or economic expenditure for the public company," according to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Here it is about the contracts signed in Cameroon between 2005 and 2013, when the DEFEX commercial agent Philippe Bourcier, with the "main and determining" participation of Manuel Iglesias as commercial director, acted as an intermediary to pay the alleged bribes through seven 'ghost' companies with accounts in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the African republic in order to win the contracts.

According to Anti-Corruption, Bourcier, a fugitive from Justice, thus moved the money both to his own pocket and to authorities and officials from Cameroon and other countries such as Senegal, Gabon and Algeria, and hid it through contracts for the provision of services and representation between DEFEX and its holding companies.

The letter highlights the "decisive" role that Rear Admiral Pierre Njine Djonkam, "recipient of gifts, trips, hotel stays and cosmetic surgery expenses" had for obtaining and executing public contracts with the Cameroon authorities for his wife, who Iglesias would define in an email as "retreaded", all at the expense of the semi-public company.

One of the contracts, which was for a coastal surveillance service for 99.3 million euros, would have been approved in an agreement between Iglesias and the Minister of the Presidency and responsible for the defense of Cameroon, Alain Mebe Ngo'o, with the mediation of the aforementioned rear admiral, who is the one who would have negotiated the fine print. Only in one of the sections of the project, Iglesias would have agreed with Bourcier commissions of more than five million.

It was in January 2019 when the then judge of the National High Court José de la Mata proposed to try the arms sales company and the aforementioned defendants. The facts investigated focus on contracts for spare parts for vehicles, surveillance systems, anti-riot material and weapons for patrol boats.