CCPR/C/112/D/2325/2013
1.3
On 12 May 2014, the Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim
measures, acting on behalf of the Committee, accepted the request of the State party that the
admissibility of the complaint be considered separately from the merits.
Factual background
2.1
Between March 2006 and December 2007, the author developed a new money
transfer concept called “Transfert Services”, an alternative to money transfer based on an
integrated information technology platform connecting local businesses. “Transfert
Services” allows persons from developing countries residing in Western countries to
respond directly to the needs of their loved ones by giving them access to goods and
services through the platform. Between 2008 and 2009, the author created a start-up
business, Hope Finance, in order to develop the platform, whose activities were aimed at
diasporas until 2010.
2.2
The author then decided to develop the platform so that it could also target States
and public authorities in Africa. In 2010, he created an information technology platform
aimed at local governments and the mobilization of funding through a website
(www.devhop.com). In 2010, the author also created a new business, Hope Services, to
support this new activity. Hope Finance and Hope Services subsequently formed the Hope
Group, with each company acting independently in the countries where the author carried
out his activities (France, Belgium, the United States of America, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin,
Senegal, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon).
2.3
On 21 July 2011, having presented his project at a conference organized in
Cameroon by the Ministry of the Economy, the author, through Hope Finance, signed a
mutual agreement regarding the provision of an “integrated information technology
platform to mobilize non-debt-creating resources for the funding of community
development plans and the growth and employment strategy”. On 31 May 2011, the author
created a company named Hope Services SA in Cameroon, for the purpose of managing the
partnership with the Government. The website www.devhop.com was officially launched
on 22 November 2012. In April 2013, the author was invited to Cameroon to finalize the
terms of the operating agreement with the Ministry of the Economy governing the exclusive
outsourcing of public services to the Hope Group, as set out in the contract of 21 July 2011.
2.4
In Cameroon, various criminal complaints of fraud, aggravated fraud and
falsification of private business documents were filed against the author. On 6 May 2013,
during his stay in the State party, the author’s passport was confiscated by the public
prosecutor. On 10 May 2013, a warrant for his arrest was issued and he was taken into
police custody. On 14 May 2013, his detention in custody was extended until 16 May 2013
after further complaints were filed against him. Between 10 and 22 May 2013, the police
held various hearings and confrontations relating to the five complaints against the author.
He remained in police custody until 22 May 2013, when he was placed in pretrial detention
under warrants issued on 22 May, 27 June, 9 October and 4 November 2013. The author
complains that, while in police custody, he was forced to sleep on the floor of an
unventilated cell measuring approximately 8 m2 with 20 other persons. He also states that
he was attacked by other detainees in New Bell Prison on 28 June 2013 and that his
complaints to the prison services have come to nothing.
2.5
The first complaint of fraud was lodged on 9 December 2012 by Dieudonné
Kengoum Bouketcha, who claims to have given money to the author in order to purchase
shares in Hope Finance France. Mr. Kengoum then discovered that the author was the only
shareholder of the company in question and he has never received a return on his
investment. In his criminal complaint, Mr. Kengoum states that he was informed by third
parties that the author was a notorious con man in France and that he had informed other
complainants of the author’s presence in Cameroon. Moreover, Mr. Kengoum had brought
GE.14-23228 (E)
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