Jean Pierre Amougou Bélinga, an influential businessman in Cameroon, suspected of being the mastermind of the kidnapping and murder of journalist Martinez Zogo, was charged early this Saturday, March 4 by the Cameroonian justice. With him, the director of the DGRE, Maxime Eko Eko and Lieutenant Colonel Justin Danwé, the alleged leader of the commando, as well as all the members of this commando.
After 26 days of detention in the cells of the Secretariat of State for Defence, the media magnate, Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga was placed in custody at the Yaounde central prison. The military tribunal reached this verdict after a third night of hearings. The owner of the press group L’Anecdote will therefore appear in court for “complicity in torture by assisting“.
In addition, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe, the director of the DGRE, Maxime Eko Eko and all the members of the commando responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Martinez Zogo are also charged at the Kondengui prison by the Military Tribunal. On the other hand, other figures, such as Bruno Bidjang, a journalist and director general of the press group L’Anecdote, have been provisionally released. At the same time, Colonel Etoundi Nsoe, Amougou Belinga’s father-in-law and security chief, was definitively released.
As a reminder, Martinez Zogo, journalist and channel manager of Amplitude FM, was found on Sunday 22 January naked and visibly mutilated in the suburbs of Yaoundé, five days after his abduction. Medical sources say he was severely tortured, with his fingers cut off, multiple fractures in his arms and legs, and an iron bar thrust into his anus. On his show Embouteillage, Martinez Zogo regularly denounced alleged corruption cases in which he implicated senior government officials.
