CRIET: the appeals chamber overturns the conviction of Raymond Adékambi

The CRIET appeals chamber on Monday, December 8, 2025, issued a cassation ruling in the breach of trust case involving the former director general of the public agency AGETIP-Bénin, Raymond Adékambi.

By this ruling, the appeals court found that it was not competent to try the case, thereby annulling the first-instance conviction and sending the special prosecutor back to pursue proper remedies.

A heavy initial sentence

On April 14, 2025, the CRIET criminal chamber had sentenced Raymond Adékambi to three years’ imprisonment, together with a fine of about 188 million CFA francs, after reclassifying the facts from “breach of trust” to “breach of trust and money laundering.”

The decision also included a remand warrant, the restitution of several tens of millions of FCFA to the civil party, as well as the confiscation of plots of land located in Kétou.

At that first judgment, the prosecution had already raised a substantive argument: in their view, the alleged damage being below the threshold set by law made the criminal chamber incompetent. That argument had not been upheld then, but it has now been validated by the appeals chamber.

What happens to the case?

With the annulment, Raymond Adékambi is now freed from the convictions in this first case. But this file is not the only one: the businessman remains prosecuted in a separate proceeding concerning an alleged embezzlement of 1.6 billion FCFA from AGETIP. In that second case, proceedings are still ongoing before the CRIET.

This reversal illustrates the uncertainties of litigation related to economic cases in Benin, particularly regarding jurisdictional competence and the rigor of procedures.

The former CEO’s lawyers see it as a form of justice being restored, while some observers are calling for simplification of the mechanisms to avoid legal gaps.