The highly anticipated trial of 17 accused, to varying degrees, of the assassination in Cameroon of journalist Martinez Zogo, slayer of corruption at the top of power and tortured by a military commando in 2023, opened on Monday March 25, but was adjourned late in the day to April 15.
A wealthy businessman known to be close to ministers and officers, Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, the then director of the all-powerful military intelligence, Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, his head of operations Justin Danwe as well as the military commando accused of having kidnapped, tortured and killed the journalist in January 2023, are being tried in particular for “kidnapping”, “torture” and “assassination”, or “complicity” of these counts, according to the indictment read in court military from Yaoundé.
This assassination of a popular journalist caused a stir and a real outcry in Cameroon, a vast country in Central Africa ruled with an iron fist for more than forty-one years by President Paul Biya, aged 91.
Horribly mutilated naked body
In a packed room, where part of the public had to remain standing, Amougou Belinga, divisional commissioner Eko Eko, then head of the General Directorate of External Research (DGRE), and lieutenant-colonel Justin Danwe were present as the 14 other accused, reports an AFP journalist present in the room. But they only spoke to respond to the statement of their civil status and to name their lawyers.
The reading of the act was limited to listing all the charges, without detailing who was suspected of having committed them or of being the instigator or accomplice.
Calm, the accused showed no sign of particular emotion during the three-hour hearing. Eko Eko and Amougou Belinga wore black suits, the DGRE soldiers wore their army uniforms.
Then the lawyers were invited to present their first observations by Colonel Jacques Missé Njoné, president of the military tribunal, who then postponed the hearing to April 15 “to respond to all observations and communicate the lists of witnesses”.
“The civil parties were never brought to participate in the investigation, this is unacceptable! To date, I have not had access to the file,” protested Mr. Calvin Job, the Zogo family’s lawyer. The government commissioner of the court promised to return it to him at the end of the hearing.
Kidnapped on January 17, 2023 in front of a gendarmerie station in the suburbs of the capital, Yaoundé, Arsène Salomon Mbani Zogo, known as “Martinez”, 50, was found dead five days later. His naked body was horribly mutilated.
War of Succession
The assassination caused an immense shock in Cameroon where Mr. Zogo was very popular, but also abroad, forcing the authorities to agree to put behind bars personalities previously considered untouchable.
In a corrosive tone, Martinez Zogo spared no one at the top of power, except Mr. Biya and his family, a red line in the media.
He particularly denounced, on the microphone of his show “Emboteillage”, on Amplitude FM radio, alleged cases of corruption with Amougou Belinga, owner of numerous groups in the fields of banking, finance, insurance, as his favorite target. real estate and the media, all known to be in favor of power.
The assassination of Martinez Zogo is widely interpreted by the opposition and analysts as a bloody avatar of the war of succession waged quietly between two rival clans in Paul Biya’s entourage.
Amougou Belinga is known to be very close to ministers and protégés of the president, some of whom are reputed to be contenders to succeed the patriarch. And they themselves are rivals of the secretary general of the presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, whose name is also put forward as a possible runner-up.
