With our correspondent in Yaoundé, Richard Onanena

Colonel Jean-Pierre Otoulou took the stand to defend his investigation. He claimed to possess evidence, notably that journalist Bruno Bidjang, then an associate of businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, one of the main defendants in the case, had attempted to gather information about probes concerning him.

While the latter tried to prove his innocence, the lawyer for Martinez Zogo’s rightful claimants pointed to interference in the proceedings. “This simply reveals what we suspected from the start. He indeed tried to infiltrate this joint commission in an investigation that was supposed to concern him,” stated Maître Calvin Job.

Lieutenant-colonel says he acted on orders

In his exchanges with Colonel Otoulou, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe of the DGRE admitted to planning the surveillance, abduction, and torture of Cameroonian host Martinez Zogo. He also reportedly assembled the operational teams with DGRE elements. However, he suggested he had received orders from his superiors.

For the lawyers of Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, director general of general intelligence at the time of the events, no evidence supports his account. “He went on a mission without receiving a mission order or funding. When he returns, he makes no report to his superiors. Simple conclusion: it was a personal initiative of Colonel Danwe,” dismissed Maître Ndjana Ndjana.

Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Danwe also reaffirmed that the torture of Martinez Zogo did not take place in the Ekang building, owned by Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga.