Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara

Who is Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara?

Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara is a Cameroonian politician. He was the Minister of Higher Education from December 1997 to August 2002, the Minister of State and Secretary-General of the Presidency from August 2002 to September 2006, and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from September 2006 until he was dismissed from the government in a cabinet reshuffle on September 7, 2007.

Mebara was a member of the national committee for the coordination of President Paul Biya's re-election campaign in the October 2004 presidential election. His dismissal in September 2007 was said to have been linked to his reported desire to succeed Biya, in addition to Biya's disapproval of a communiqué issued as a retort to Western criticisms of the July 2007 parliamentary election.

Mebara has been detained since August 2008 at the central prison of Yaoundé. He is accused of an "attempt" to embezzle 31 million US dollars. The accusation is based on a reply to a letter he received from the General Manager of Aircraft Portfolio Management - an international aviation consulting firm. In that letter, Mebara accepted the offer made to him by the General Manager to try and protect government funds that GIA has misappropriated and were illegitimately holding in their accounts to provide a presidential aircraft to the president of Cameroon. GIA was a shady company hired by Mebara's predecessor and purposely set up and controlled by Yves Michel Fotso - the ex-General Manager of Cameroon Airlines to lease aircraft into Cameroon Airlines. GIA went bankrupt in 2004.