Background

Political career
Patassé joined the Central African civil service in 1959, shortly before independence. He became an agricultural engineer and agricultural inspector in the Ministry of Agriculture on 1 July 1963, under President David Dacko. In December 1965, Dacko appointed him Director of Agriculture and Minister of Development. In 1966, Jean-Bédel Bokassa took power in a coup d'état. Patassé was the "cousin" of President Bokassa's principal wife, Catherine Denguiade. Patassé gained the confidence of the new president and he served in almost all the many governments formed by Bokassa (exceptions including short periods of several months in 1974 and 1976). He served as Minister of Development (1 January 1966 - 5 April 1968), Minister of Transport and Energy (5 April 1968 - 17 September 1969), Minister of State for Development, Tourism, Transport and Energy (17 September 1969 - 4 February 1970), Minister of State for Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Waters, Forests, Hunting, Tourism and Transport (4 February 1970 - 25 June 1970), Minister of State for Development (25 June 1970 - 19 August 1970), Minister of State for Transport and Commerce (19 August 1970 - 25 November 1970), Minister of State for the Organization of Transport by Roads, Rivers and Air (25 November 1970 - 19 October 1971), Minister of State for Civil Aviation (19 October 1971 - 13 May 1972), Minister of State for delegated by the President of the Republic for Rural Development (13 May 1972 - 20 March 1973), Minister of State for Public Health and Social Affairs (20 March 1973 - 16 October 1973), Minister of State delegated by the President of the Republic for Missions? (16 October 1973 - 1 February 1974 [at which point he left the government briefly for health reasons], Minister of State for Tourism, Waters, Forests, Hunting and Fishing (15 June 1974 - 4 April 1976), Minister of State serving as Agricultural Councilor for the Head of State (10 April 1976 -24 May 1976), Minister of State for Tourism, Water, Forests, Hunting and Fishing (24 May 1976 - 4 September 1976). After Bokassa's creation of the Council for the Central African Revolution (in imitation of Libya's government council), Patassé was named a member of the Council of the Revolution with the rank of Prime Minister in charge of Posts and Communications, Tourism, Water, Forests, Hunting and Fishing, as well as Custodian of the Seats?? of State (4 September 1976 - 14 December 1976). During this period Patassé followed Bokassa in briefly becoming a convert to Islam (October 1976 - January 1977) and changed his name to Mustafa Patassé. After Bokassa became Emperor Bokassa I, Patassé was named (7 December 1976) Prime Minister and Head of the first Imperial Government. He remained in this position until 14 July 1978, when a public announcement was made that Patassé had stepped down from office due to health problems. Patassé then left for France, where he remained in exile until the overthrow of Bokassa in September 1979. Shortly before Bokassa's overthrow, Patassé announced his opposition to the Emperor and founded the Front for the Liberation of the Central African People (Front de Libération du Peuple Centrafricain) or FLPC.
Emperor Bokassa was overthrown and President David Dacko restored to power by the French in 1979. Dacko ordered Patassé to be put under house arrest. Patassé attempted to escape to the Republic of Chad, but failed and was arrested again. He was later released due to alleged health problems.

1960s-1970s: Rise to power
Patassé returned to the CAR to present himself as a candidate for the presidential election of 15 March 1981, after which it was announced that Patassé gained 38% of the votes and thus came in second, after President Dacko. Patassé denounced the election results as rigged, which they clearly were. Several months later, on 1 September 1981, General André Kolingba overthrew Dacko in a bloodless coup and took power, after which he forbade political activity in the country. Patassé felt obliged to leave the CAR to live in exile once again, but on 27 February 1982, Patassé returned to the CAR and participated in an unsuccessful coup d'état against General Kolingba with the help of a few military officers such as General François Bozize. Four days later, having failed to gain the support of the military forces, Patassé went in disguise to the French Embassy in order to seek refuge. After heated negotiations between President Kolingba and the French, Patassé was allowed to leave for exile in Togo. After remaining abroad for almost a decade, of which several years were spent in France, Patassé returned to the CAR in 1992 to participate in presidential elections as head of the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (MLPC). The donor community, with the fall of the Soviet Union, saw no need to prop up the Kolingba regime and so had pressed for change helping to organise elections with some help from the UN Electoral Assistance Unit and with logistical support from the French army.

1990s: Return to power
Patassé left the country for a conference in Niger in 2003, and in his absence Bozizé seized Bangui on March 15. Although the coup was internationally condemned, no attempt was made to depose the new leader. Patassé is now living in exile in Togo.
Although nominated as his party's presidential candidate in November 2004, on December 30 Patassé was barred from running in the election due to what the constitutional court considered problems with his birth certificate and land title. He was one of seven candidates barred, while five, including Bozizé, were permitted to stand. After an agreement signed in Libreville, Gabon on January 22, 2005, all barred presidential candidates were permitted to stand in the March 13 election except for Patassé, on the grounds that he is the subject of judicial proceedings. Patassé's party backed his last prime minister, Martin Ziguélé, for president in preference to Patassé.
Patassé was accused of stealing 70 billion Central African francs from the country's treasury. He denied this and in an interview with Agence France-Presse on December 21, 2004, he stated that he had no idea where he could have found so much money to steal in a country with a budget of only 90-100 billion francs. He was also accused of war crimes in connection with the violence that followed a failed 2002 coup attempt, in which rebels from the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo came to Patassé's assistance, but were accused of committing many atrocities in the process. Patassé, the Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba (now the Vice-President) and three others were charged in September 2004. [2] However, the government of CAR was unable to arrest them, so the courts referred the matter in April 2006 to the International Criminal Court.
In March 2006, the Central African government accused Patassé of recruiting rebels and foreign mercenaries, establishing a training camp for them on the Sudanese border, and planning to destabilize the country. [3] [4]
At an extraordinary congress of the MLPC in June 2006, Patassé was suspended from the party for one year, while Ziguélé was elected as President of the MPLC. [5] In August 2006 a court in the Central African Republic sentenced Patassé in absentia to 20 years of hard labor after a trial over the financial misconduct charges. [6] At the MLPC's third ordinary congress in June 2007, Patassé was suspended from the party for three years, until the next party congress, with the threat of being expelled from the party altogether if he speaks on its behalf without approval while he is suspended. [7]