Former President of the Comoros Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, 64, was sentenced this Monday to life in prison for high treason, by a decision of the National Security Court.
“He betrayed the mission entrusted to him by the Comoros,” prosecutor Ali Mohamed Junaid said, using a solemn tone during the closing debate at a meeting this Monday in Moroni, the capital of this small archipelago on the east coast of Africa. near Mozambique.
Sambi is accused of being involved in a scandal known as “economic citizenship” because he approved a law in 2008 that allowed citizenship to be sold at high prices.
The decision is not subject to appeal, so the former president, who has already been in custody for four years, much longer than the eight months allowed by law, will be in prison for the rest of his life.
The prosecution said the law “gave gangsters the right to sell citizenship like peanuts” and that the former head of state embezzled more than 1.8 billion euros, more than the country’s total GDP.
The defense argued that no evidence or bank account was found and that the law allowed the state treasury to be replenished and citizenship granted to tens of thousands of Gulf nationals, who are considered second-class citizens in the region.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.