Fmr ambassador fights to prove innocence behind bars

Foreign ambassadors, once they finish their tours of duty, often go back home and write books or become private consultants. Others join the faculty of prestigious universities. If they’ve had an especially distinguished track record, they might be named foreign ministers by their country’s president, and – in a few cases – they end up as presidents themselves.

Jerome Mendouga’s career took a very different path – taking him all the way from the comfort of Washington’s Embassy Row to the squalor of Cameroon’s most notorious slammer.

After serving for 15 years as Cameroon’s ambassador to the United States, Mendouga returned to his African homeland in November 2008 – and five months later was arrested and jailed on suspicion of embezzling millions in state funds, largely in connection with an aircraft deal that’s become known in Cameroon as the “Albatross” affair.

Since April 15, 2009, the 72-year-old career diplomat has languished in a filthy cellblock as the government he once proudly represented tries to build a case against him.

Yet almost a year and a half later, no formal charges had been filed as of press time, and Mendouga’s numerous friends and supporters – including his cancer-stricken wife and two daughters in the United States – adamantly proclaim his innocence, insisting he’s a victim of circumstance.

In late May, The Washington Diplomat traveled to Cameroon to mark the country’s 50th anniversary of independence. During the trip, we attempted to visit Mendouga at Kondengui maximum-security prison, located on the outskirts of Yaoundé, the capital. This reporter got as far as Kondengui’s heavily guarded entrance before being told that Mendouga was a “special prisoner” and that special permission was needed to see him.

Such permission never came, despite The Diplomat spending an entire morning being shunted from one low-level government bureaucracy to another. But we did finally manage to reach Mendouga through his Yaoundé lawyer, Simon Essama.

“It’s not my official residence on Normanstone Drive, I can tell you that,” Mendouga remarked when asked about his current digs. “I’m in a room built for 12 people, with three bunk beds, one on top of the other. For the time being, there are six or seven of us here. We have three boxes for showering and three toilets – one normal Western-style and two Turkish squat toilets.”