Ex-president Ahmed Abdallah Sambi was given a life sentence for high treason by a Comoros court on November 28.
The 64-year-old was found guilty of selling passports to stateless Gulf residents.
Between 2006 to 2011, Sambi was in charge of the Indian Ocean archipelago.
In 2008, he enacted a legislation permitting the selling of passports and was subsequently accused of embezzling millions of dollars via a scheme known as the “economic citizenship” controversy.
The prosecution said that the expenditure exceeded $1.8 billion, which is more than the nation’s gross domestic product.
Attorney representing civilian plaintiffs Eric Emmanuel Sossa said, “They granted thugs the power to sell Comorian nationality as if they were selling peanuts.”
However, according to Sambi’s attorney Jean-Gilles Halimi, there is no documentation of this money — “no account found.”
Sambi declined to appear in court because his attorneys said there was no assurance he would be judged properly. Since he had previously served on the panel that chose to indict him, his defense asked the judge to disqualify himself at one appearance.
The State Security Court is a special court whose decisions cannot be challenged.
The previous leader was first charged with corruption, but the accusations were changed to high treason, a felony that “does not exist in Comorian law,” according to Halimi.
Sambi had been incarcerated for four years prior to his trial, significantly surpassing the eight-month limit. Initially, he was given house arrest for disrupting public order.
Sambi is an adversary of the current president of Mali, Azali Assoumani.
