{{Cameroonian authorities freed a French businessman on Monday whose 17-year imprisonment on corruption charges became a source of tension between the two countries and drew appeals from President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande and the UN human rights agency.}}<\/p>\n
Michel Thierry Atangana (pictured), was released from jail in the capital, Yaound\u00e9, on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAtangana was freed this evening. He is at the French embassy,\u201d his lawyer in Cameroon, Charles Tchoungang, told journalists outside the embassy gates.<\/p>\n
Atangana\u2019s family, lawyers and many political observers have maintained that his arrest and imprisonment were purely political.<\/p>\n
A French national of Cameroonian origin, Atanga was accused in 1997 of embezzling public funds, put on trial without a lawyer and sentenced to 15 years in jail.<\/p>\n
Atangana, now 49, had been working in Cameroon on a motorway development project when he was accused of embezzling 1.1 billion CFA francs (90 million euros) of public money alongside former health minister Titus Edzoa.<\/p>\n
Before their imprisonment, Edzoa, 69, a former adviser to President Paul Biya, resigned from his cabinet position and announced he would challenge Biya in the 1997 election. Atangana was his campaign manager.<\/p>\n
{{Second sentence}}<\/p>\n
The two were due to complete their initial prison terms in 2012 but new charges were brought against them and both were found guilty and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in October 2013. <\/p>\n
The decision prompted an outcry from France, the UN rights commission and international rights groups who denounced the trial as unfair and politically motivated.<\/p>\n
Atangana and Edzoa have always denied the allegations against them.<\/p>\n
The release of the two came after Biya signed a special decree last week to pardon a category of prisoners \u2013 those sentenced for more than ten years on charges of embezzling public funds \u2013 as part of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the reunification of the central African nation, Atangana\u2019s French lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti, explained to reporters.<\/p>\n
In January 2013, French President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande described Atangana\u2019s detention as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and urged Biya to \u201cpush for a solution\u201d.<\/p>\n
Biya, 81, has ruled central Africa\u2019s largest economy for three decades after coming to power in 1982 when his predecessor resigned.<\/p>\n
He won a fresh seven-year term in 2011 polls that were criticised as unfair. Observers said the term would likely be his last due to his age.<\/p>\n
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{{Cameroonian authorities freed a French businessman on Monday whose 17-year imprisonment on corruption charges became a source of tension between the two countries and drew appeals from President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande and the UN human rights agency.}} Michel Thierry Atangana (pictured), was released from jail in the capital, Yaound\u00e9, on Monday. \u201cAtangana was freed this evening. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-12738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050546,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12738.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12738.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12738.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12738.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12738.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12738.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12738"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=12738"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=12738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}