In a high-profile case that has shook the nation, a prominent businessman from Cameroon was charged on Saturday with participating in the torture of a journalist who was later killed, according to his lawyer.
Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, who is rumored to be friendly with ministers and high-ranking officials, was detained on February 6 and appeared before a military court in the capital Yaounde on Friday before being remanded, according to his attorney.
Under the condition of anonymity, a source at the court confirmed the report to AFP.
Requests for comments from the authorities regarding the accusations Amougou Belinga is facing were not answered.
Martinez Zogo, a radio journalist who was abducted and killed brutally in January, was a vocal opponent of financial fraud and graft and frequently received threats as a result of his work.
Owner of L’Anecdote media group Amougou Belinga was “arrested… at dawn” last month, according to the organization.
The tycoon had previously been “named a suspect in the killing of Martinez Zogo,” according to Denis Omgba Bomba, head of the National Media Observatory, a division attached to the communications ministry.
50-year-old Zogo was the manager of Amplitude FM, a privately owned radio station, and the host of the daily program Embouteillage (Traffic Jam).
Amougou Belinga had frequently been mentioned in his accusations of corruption.
In the suburbs of the country’s capital Yaounde, Zogo was kidnapped on January 17; his badly dismembered corpse was discovered five days later.
He had spoken to listeners just a few days prior to his death about the threats he faced.
In response to the murder, 20 prominent Cameroonians demonstrated against the government’s “long tradition of trivializing impunity and accepting atrocities.”
