The trial for embezzlement of Titus Edzoa, a former doctor to Cameroon's President Paul Biya and ex-secretary general of the presidency, was on Wednesday postponed until January 20.

The judge said the trial was being delayed for the notification of the list of state witnesses to Edzoa's lawyer, who complained he had not been informed in line with due legal procedure.

The lawyers for two other defendants said they had received lists of witnesses against their - clients five minutes before the opening of the hearing. -

The trial has already been postponed twice since October 27.

Edzoa and three other suspects, including a former junior minister in the presidency, are accused of "influence-peddling," "embezzling" and "attempting to embezzle" 61 billion CFA francs (93 millions euros / 140 million dollars), according to a judicial source.

In 1999, Edzoa was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a separate case of embezzlement.

He was the former personal doctor to Biya for several years and a key man in the regime, but he was arrested in 1997 a few days after he resigned from his post as health minister and announced that he planned to stand for election against Biya, who has been in power since 1982.

Edzoa has long been kept prisoner at police headquarters in Yaounde. He claims he is the victim of a political plot.