The French government has cleared the former Minister of Petroleum Resources under the Sani Abacha administration, Chief Dan Etete, of the conviction slammed on him by a French court.
Chief Dan Etete was in 2007, sentenced by a French court to three years in prison in absentia and a fine of 300,000 euros ($440,000) for money laundering.
In a surprising twist however, a Bulletin No. 3 dated Friday, March 7 2014 and issued by the Ministry of Justice, Criminal, Cases and Pardon Division, the French government said Etete had been pardoned and cleared of the conviction.
This was despite the fact that there was a subsisting warrant for Etete’s arrest and he had not served a single day in his jail sentence.
Etete was convicted seven years ago for using 15 million euros in funds obtained fraudulently to purchase properties in 1999 and 2000, including a chateau in northwest France, a Paris apartment and a luxury villa in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly.
The court ordered the former minister to pay 150,000 euros to Nigeria in compensation for moral prejudice and 20,000 euros in fees.
The French government bulletin, which was signed by the magistrate in charge of the national criminal record, Xavier Pavageau, said the former minister was freed.
The bulletin reads thus: “Statement of convictions to be recorded on Bulletin No. 3 in compliance with Art.777 of the code criminal procedure. In the absence of convictions to be recorded on Bulletin No. 3, the said bulletin will bear only a transversal bar (Article R.84 of the Code of criminal procedure).”
Consequently, Etete’s solicitors, Pierre Benoliel, have written a letter to the French Ambassador in Nigeria, to accord the former minister recognition and deal with him as free man with no constraints.
The letter dated March 17, read: “As you know, Mr. Dan Etete, eminent personality in Nigeria, is a great friend of France and has been so for many years. In spite of the judicial vicissitudes that he has unfortunately known in the beginning of years 2000, he is now free of any constraint and he complies with the fiscal and legal French administrations.”
