Benin – Theft of electricity: five-year prison sentence sought against a property owner and two SBEE agents

In Benin, the Court for Repression of Economic and Terrorist Offenses (CRIET) on Monday, March 2, 2026, requested prison terms against several people prosecuted for electricity theft, including an owner and two agents of the Société béninoise d’énergie électrique (SBEE), Banouto reported.

According to evidence presented at the hearing, these defendants are accused of having participated in illegal manipulations of meters and thus deprived SBEE of substantial revenues, to the detriment of the state-owned company.

The public prosecutor, represented in court, asked the special court to impose a five-year prison sentence on the owner, as well as similar sanctions for the two agents implicated for their alleged roles in these offenses.

In addition to imprisonment, fines and restitution measures to SBEE were ordered to compensate for losses caused by these fraudulent acts.

The proceedings focused on the evidence of the facts and the gravity of the harm to SBEE’s electrical resources, one of the country’s major state-owned enterprises. The case file was reserved for deliberation.