Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, the former president of the Comoros, was on trial in absentia for high treason, and prosecutors there on Thursday asked for a life sentence.
Sambi, 64, the fierce rival of the present president Azali Assoumani, is accused of selling Comorian passports to stateless people residing in Gulf countries.
“He betrayed the mission entrusted to him by the Comorians,” said public prosecutor Ali Mohamed Djounaid before the elite State Security Court.
For Sambi, who will be sentenced on November 29, he wanted life in jail.
A rule authorizing the sale of passports at exorbitant prices was passed in 2008 by Sambi, the leader of the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago from 2006 to 2011.
“They gave thugs the right to sell Comorian nationality like we would sell peanuts,” said Togolese lawyer Eric Emmanuel Sossa, who is sitting on the prosecution bench.
The former boss is charged with using the scam to steal millions of dollars.
However, Sambi’s French attorney, Jean-Gilles Halimi, claimed that there is no proof of this money and that “no account has been located.”
Sambi declined to go to the trial because his attorneys claimed there was no assurance he would be treated fairly.
He didn’t show up until Monday, when his attorneys asked the judge to step aside because he had previously served on the committee that decided to indict him.
Sambi has already spent four years behind bars and was originally placed under house arrest for disturbing public order.
In the so-called “economic citizenship” affair, three months later he was placed in pre-trial prison for embezzlement, corruption, and forgery.
After that, he was accused of high treason.
Bashar Kiwan, a French-Syrian businessman who was one of the defendants, claimed that the government was trying to persuade him to testify against the former president in exchange for a pardon.
The presidency has officially refuted these claims, but the defense has told AFP that it intends to file a complaint alleging witness tampering.
Since their independence from France in 1975, the Comoros islands of Anjouan, Grande Comore, and Moheli have been plagued by political unrest, including about 20 coups or attempted coups.
