CCPR/C/121/D/2764/2016 a later date than the Criminal Code of November 1965, which provides for life imprisonment for the offence of misappropriation of public funds. The principle of enforcing the less severe criminal statute should therefore be applied. 3.8 According to the author, article 16 of the Covenant was violated, in that the criminal procedure that was applied did not distinguish properly between the juridical personality of the company SCLM, a legal person, and Mr. Zogo Andela, a natural person, thus denying him his juridical personality. 3.9 The author also considers that Mr. Zogo Andela was discriminated against in violation of article 26, in that he was the only person to be charged in the case, while no charges were brought against senior officials, even though they had since 2003 unlawfully managed and retained the vessels in contention. 3.10 The author therefore requests the Committee to rule that Mr. Zogo Andela’s detention is arbitrary and to recommend that the Cameroonian Government should proceed to his immediate release and indemnify him in the amount of US$ 200 million for professional, material, physical, moral and psychological damage. 4 State party’s observations on admissibility and merits 4.1 In its observations of 19 December 2016, the State party challenges the admissibility of the communication, emphasizing that the author has not exhausted all available domestic remedies as required under article 5 (2) (b) of the Optional Protocol. Secondarily, the State party holds that the author’s complaints are ill-founded. 4.2 The State party begins by recalling the facts, including the circumstances in which Cameroon, in order to develop and modernize its deep-sea fishing activities, decided to take a direct loan with Spain, in an amount of US$ 40 million, returnable in 15 years in the form of 30 half-yearly payments of equal value. A company was set up for the use of the boats, the Société camerounaise de leasing maritime (SCLM), of which Mr. Zogo Andela was appointed chief executive. A reassignment agreement was then signed on 30 October 1996 between the State of Cameroon and SCLM and the State hired out 20 fishing boats to the company under a lease-purchase agreement. The proceeds of the use of the boats would in turn go towards servicing the debt through a mechanism to set up an escrow account that was opened to guarantee the timely payment of the loan. The account was supposed to show a credit balance of at least 2 billion CFA francs before the loan schedule came into effect. The State thus retained ownership of the 20 vessels until the debt was completely cleared. It may be noted that the agreement gave the State the right, in the event of failure by SCLM to meet any one of its obligations, to take back the vessels without prior warning and without prejudice to any legal or regulatory actions. 4.3 According to the State party, matters did not, unfortunately, go according to plan. The use made of the boats by Mr. Zogo Andela clearly showed that he was engaged in misappropriation. Thus, he took complete control over SCLM, removing the other owners involved in the project and giving some of the boats his own name (Andela). Moreover, on the pretext of looking for new markets, he moved 12 boats to the Congo, Mozambique, Senegal and Mauritania in order to avoid their being under State control. The majority shareholder and managing director of all these companies was Mr. Zogo Andela. These companies signed charter parties for fishing boats with SCLM and paid a rental. On 1 July 2000, a rider was signed in Dakar, amending a charter party signed in 1999 and raising the flat fee per boat to 15 million CFA francs. 5 In the contracts signed in these countries with various operators, the companies thus created were presented as being the owners of the fishing boats. 4.4 Despite the successful use of the vessels, no money was ever paid into the escrow account. The State thus took on the responsibility of repaying the debt, in the sum of 4 5 6 Calculated as follows: professional damage: 85 billion CFA francs, or US$ 170 million; physical, corporal and psychological damage and damage to the family: 7 billion CFA francs, or US$ 14 million; moral damage: 2.5 billion CFA francs, or US$ 5 million; and expenses arising from his defence: 5 million CFA francs, or US$ 1 million. The State party encloses this document. GE.17-22814