Authorities in Cameroon on Monday arrested businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, owner of a media conglomerate, for his alleged role in the murder last week of prominent journalist Martinez Zogo.
Sources quoted by the Cameroonian news portal ActuCameroun said that Amougou Belinga was arrested at his home earlier in the day, with no comment from the authorities at this stage.
The businessman is the owner of the L’Anecdote media group. Zogo was abducted in January in front of a police station in the capital, Yaoundé, and his badly mutilated body was found five days later. The reporter had recently denounced an alleged embezzlement of funds in public sector procurement that allegedly benefited Amougou Belinga himself.
In the aftermath, Cameroon’s Minister of Justice, Jean de Dieu Momo, ordered an immediate investigation into the journalist’s murder. «No journalist and no one deserves to be killed for speaking out. Everything must come to light,» he said. Cameroon is ranked 118th out of 180 in the Press Freedom Index published by the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)