Michel Thierry Atangana is a French citizen of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

ian origin who was imprisoned in

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

, Cameroon from 1997 until 2014. International human rights organisations declared him a

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

, held for support of potential presidential candidate Titus Edzoa. Atagana was released in 2014 by presidential decree.

Arrest

Michel Atangana returned to Cameroon in 1994 to head Copisur, a government body overseeing road construction projects. He worked closely with Titus Edzoa, who announced in April 1997 that he would run against the incumbent

Paul Biya Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo; 13 February 1933) is a Cameroonian politician who has served as the president of Cameroon since 6 November 1982.

for the post of the president of Cameroon in the election scheduled for that October. On 12 May 1997, Atangana was arrested and detained for 52 days without trial. The Cameroonian government eventually alleged embezzlement of public funds and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Edzoa was arrested in October of the same year, imprisoned and also charged with embezzlement.

Detention

Atangana spent 17 years in a cell below the Yaoundé gendarmerie. Human rights organizations including

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

and

Freedom House Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...

condemned his imprisonment. In 2005, the U.S. Department of State declared him a political prisoner. In 2013, Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience. In 2013, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) is a body of independent human rights experts that investigate cases of arbitrary arrest and detention. Arbitrary arrest and detention is the imprisonment or detainment of an individual, by a State, wi ...

published their report concluding that his arrest and detention were

arbitrary Arbitrariness is the quality of being "determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle". It is also used to refer to a choice made without any specific criterion or restraint. Arbitrary decisions are not necess ...

and that he should be released immediately.

Release

In February 2014, President Paul Biya issued a decree, releasing Atangana from imprisonment, but not reversing his court conviction or returning his confiscated property.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atangana, Michel French people of Cameroonian descent French engineers French people imprisoned abroad Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Cameroon