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.”

He said Gbossokotto was out until just before midnight in the capital Bangui, which alarmed his partner who was worried about his safety. Within hours of returning home, he was taken extremely ill in the early hours of Feb. 23. By the time he arrived at a local hospital he was pronounced dead.

“Jean was definitely poisoned,” said the late journalist’s friend.

All three sources confirmed that the journalist's family was told by the hospital that his death was officially listed as cardiac or respiratory arrest, but they are convinced that the journalist was poisoned by someone close to those he often targeted in his publications.

Gbossokotto had become a thorn in the side of both the CAR government and Russian Wagner mercenaries, who’ve been in CAR for four years—following an invitation by the government to help fight rebels and secure the country’s gold mines. Putin’s private army, which is reportedly run by Yvegeny Prigozhin, is accused of carrying out a host of barbaric acts in the impoverished African nation.