Michel Thierry Atangana

Michel Thierry Atangana is a French citizen of Cameroonian origins who, upon returning to Cameroon to manage a road infrastructure project, was arbitrarily and inhumanely detained by the Cameroonian government for 17 years. In 1997, suspected of politically aligning with potential presidential candidate Titus Edzoa, Michel was detained in an atypical subterranean cell below the Yaoundé gendarmerie under false allegations of embezzlement. Since 2005 the United States Department of State and international organizations like Amnesty International, Freedom House, and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights have considered Michel a political prisoner, and following the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention's Opinion no.38/2013, Michel was released by presidential decree in 2014, but only 1/3 of the Working Group's mandates have been fulfilled.

A financial engineer, Michel returned to Cameroon in 1994 to manage a road infrastructure project in Yaounde in coordination with French investors, the Cameroonian government and President Paul Biya. On May 12, 1997, Michel was arrested and detained for 52 days without any contact with judicial authorities. While the Cameroonian government eventually alleged financial embezzlement and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, it is widely believed that Michel's detention was arbitrary and politically-motivated, under suspicions that he might support and manage the campaign of rival presidential candidate Titus Edzoa despite Michel's complete distance from political affairs.

Michel spent 17 years completely isolated in an atypical subterranean cell below the Yaounde gendarmerie, without daylight, familial contact, or fresh air. Despite consistent pleas of innocence, a corrupt court system continually alleged his criminality and kept him in inhumane conditions until overwhelming pressure was mounted by Western groups. The U.S. Department of State and organizations like Amnesty International, Freedom House, and the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have all, for years, condemned Michel's detention and pronounced his status as a political prisoner. Following investigations into his situation, in 2005, the U.S. Department of State considered him a "political prisoner," in 2013 Amnesty International considered him a "prisoner of conscience," and in 2013 the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention published their Opinion no.38/2013 outlining how to restore justice following his arbitrary detention. Meanwhile, Michel had to wait 15 years for his first consular visit from the French government.

In February 2014, President Paul Biya released Michel through presidential decree - essentially admitting that his arrest was arbitrary and allowing his return to civil society. However, Michel's court case has not been overturned so according to Cameroonian law he is still guilty and the U.N. Working Group's recommendations have only partly been followed (denying legalistic recourse for similarly detained persons like Lydienne Yen Enoum), his assets remain confiscated, and there has been no investigation into or prosecution of the corrupt officials that allowed his rights to be so violated.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention's Opinion no.38/2013 asserted that the justice owed to Michel-Thierry Atangana was tripartite: 1) He must be released, 2) There must be prosecution of the perpetrators of this injustice, and 3) He must be rehabilitated and recompensed. To date, Michel has been released - but there has been no action against the perpetrators of his denial of rights and he has been neither rehabilitated nor recompensed, with his assets remaining confiscated and the Cameroonian/French governments seemingly satisfied with achieving 1/3 of the UN's wishes. Michel continues to fight for the justice that he is owed, not simply because he has suffered enormously and deserves help in his reintroduction to society - but also because arbitrary detention is a global issue stemmed in corrupt governments who think their crimes are easily ignored. If Michel fails to receives his justice, it is expected that perpetrators of global injustice through arbitrary detention will continue to feel immune to punishment because even when their crime is discovered and publicized, it would seem that simply releasing the victim absolves of any further recourse and perpetrators can thus retain the victim's assets assets, ignore their rehabilitation, and go completely unpunished.