Guinea court jails ex-military leader Camara, other officials, for crimes against humanity

Former military leader listens as court hands out verdict. [Abdoulaye Bella Diallo/AP Photo]

After a lengthy trial, lasting over two years, Guinea’s criminal court has found former military junta head, Moussa Dadis Camara, guilty of crimes against humanity.

Camara escaped from prison during a prison break in November last year during an armed jailbreak, but he was later recaptured.

The former military leader was sentenced to 20 years in jail along with several other officials of his regime, who were given heavy sentences as well.

A list of the sentences handed down by Judge Ibrahima Sory II Tounkara, apart from Camara’s, included life imprisonment with a security period of 25 years for Colonel Claude Pivi. An arrest warrant was also issued against him.

A 20-year sentence was also handed to Colonel Moussa Tiégboro Camara; Captain Marcel Guilavogui was given 18 years of imprisonment; Colonel Blaise Goumou was given 15 years; Chief Warrant Officer Mamadou Aliou Keita was handed 11 years; Commander Aboubacar Diakité “Toumba” was given 10 years and Chief Sergeant Paul Massa Guilavogui was also given 10 years.

The following accused, Cécé Raphaël Haba, Ibrahima Camara “Kalonzo”, Alpha Amadou Baldé, and Abdoulaye Chérif Diaby, were dismissed from the prosecution for non-attributable crimes.

The court announced its verdict on Wednesday after a two-year trial over the deadly suppression of an opposition rally against his government at a stadium in the suburbs of Conakry, the country’s capital, in 2009, which saw his forces kill at least 156 people and rape 109 women, according to a United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry.

The charges against Camara and his officials included murder, rape, torture and kidnapping; charges that are classified as crimes against humanity.

More than 100 survivors and victims’ relatives testified in the trial that started in 2022, more than a decade after members of Camara’s presidential guard, soldiers, police and militias committed the massacre.

The court ordered compensation to be paid to the victims, running from 200 million to 1.5 billion Guinean francs ($23,000 to $174,000).

There were contrasting opinions on whether the trial has served justice to the victims. Some of the victims’ relatives lauded the verdict serving justice while others said the verdict for Camara was too lenient. “The convictions do not match the crimes. Our sisters were raped, our brothers massacred, bodies reported missing,” Al Jazeera reported a relative of one of the victims as saying.

Guinea’s current military government, under Col. Mamady Doumbouya, is praised for showing a deterrence against impunity by allowing, for the first time in the country’s history, a former head of state to be tried and convicted for such serious crimes, and senior military officers too. However, many say the trial has taken place against a background of continued repression by the current military government of both the opposition and the media.

Defence lawyers had also reportedly argued that reclassifying the charges as crimes against humanity on the day of the ruling robbed defendants of the opportunity to defend themselves and infringe on their right to a fair trial.

Both the accused and the plaintiffs have 15 days to appeal the verdict.