The National Court acquits Defex in the piece on illegal commissions to authorities in contracts with Cameroon

MADRID, 28 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The National Court has acquitted the semi-public arms company Defex in the trial that has been followed by the awards of the Government of Cameroon between 2005 and 2013 in exchange for commissions and bribes to authorities and officials for the supply of defense and security material. On the other hand, the court does sentence the former commercial director Manuel Iglesias-Sarriá to two years in prison.

In the sentence, to which Europa Press has had access, the Third Section of the Criminal Chamber indicates that he is convicted of a crime of corruption in international commercial transactions with the mitigation of undue delay, while it acquits him of false documentary , embezzlement of public funds and money laundering.

The Chamber agrees to impose the same sentence of two years in prison for the same crime on the president of Aresa --the company subcontracted by Defex for certain jobs--, Óscar López i Salvadó. In addition, it condemns that company for the crime of corruption in international commercial transactions to the payment of a two-year fine with a daily fee of 30 euros.

However, the court acquitted of all the crimes that were attributed to the commercial director of the company Deimos Space SLU, Francisco Luque, and to that company.

Likewise, the Chamber understands, with respect to the crime of money laundering, that it has not been proven that when making payments in favor or delivery of gifts to the authorities of the Republic of Cameroon or to persons close to them, they carried out any of the conducts that provides for the aforementioned criminal offense.

In the same way, it rules out that the proven facts fit into the crime of embezzlement of public funds in force at the time of the commission of the facts, since the money allegedly embezzled would not be that of the public company Defex but that of a bank from private law financing the projects developed in Cameroon. He also dismisses that the behaviors examined could fit into a crime of documentary falsification.