17 people, including a businessman and a former intelligence officer, will stand trial in Cameroon for the murder of a prominent journalist, according to a court document from the French news agency. AFP.
The mutilated body of Arsene Salomon Mbani Zogo, also known as Martinez, was found a few days after his abduction in front of a police station outside the capital city of Yaounde on January 17, 2023.
The 50-year-old journalist is famous for accusing corruption and appointing friends to government positions without merit in a country in the middle of Africa. He often comes out publicly and mentions the names of government officials.
International non-governmental organizations say that the government of President Paul Biya, who is 91 years old and has spent more than 41 years under a repressive regime, is suppressing the opposition.
A trial date has not yet been set for the suspects, including Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, a businessman and owner of the news agency Anecdote, who was arrested two weeks after Martinez's murder.
Maxime Leopold Eko Eko, the former head of Cameroon's intelligence agency, known as DGRE for short, must appear before the court for his alleged involvement in torture.
Similarly, the director of operations at DGRE, Justin Danwe, is also facing charges of involvement in the murder.
However, many Cameroonians are afraid that there will be no justice in the case, in a country that Reporters Without Borders has declared 118 out of 180 in terms of freedom of the press.
After Belinga and Eko Eko were released without further explanation in December, a new judge—the third so far—was appointed to preside over the case.
Human Rights Watch said that freedom of expression continues to be suppressed in Cameroon, where it said that three independent journalists were killed last year.
