Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty/ssu.gov.ua
One of the most influential and hostile critics of the infamous Wagner Group—sometimes known as Putin’s private army—died in suspicious circumstances earlier this year. Three sources close to him have told The Daily Beast that they believe he was poisoned.
Two friends and a relative of Jean Sinclair Maka Gbossokotto say the late journalist told associates he was meeting with an unnamed individual connected to both the Central African Republic (CAR) government and the Wagner Group at a restaurant in the hours before he died.
“The person he had dinner with is someone very close to the Russians,” one of Gbossokotto’s closest friends told The Daily Beast. He was speaking on the condition of anonymity as he fears he could be targeted by the Russians. “His wife who was with him when he died said at first he complained of feeling extremely weak and felt like vomiting, and later he began to convulse with frothy saliva gushing out of his mouth.”