Ousted from power in a spectacular and inevitably unexpected way on September 05, 2021 (after 11 years at the head of Guinea), the former Guinean Head of State, Professor Alpha Condé, today has setbacks with the justice of his country. His appearance is requested in the trial of the massacre perpetrated on September 28, 2009 (which opened in Conakry on September 28, 2022) and he is also being prosecuted for a string of offenses including “assassination, murder, acts of torture and kidnapping” in another file related to the “blood crimes” that were committed during his reign.
In this latest case where the former Guinean president is accused along with 26 other executives of his regime, the hearings of the parents and relatives of the victims should begin this Friday, January 20, 2023, at the Conakry Court of Appeal. They will be heard by Judicial Police Officers (OPJ).
But, as we know, the former Guinean Head of State has been living in Turkey since May 21, 2022 for “health reasons”. And, nothing predicts that Alpha Condé will agree to answer the call of Guinean justice. The military junta (the CNRD) currently in power in Conakry has already tried to bring him back to Guinea last September, in vain. Alpha Condé obviously has nothing to worry about returning to the country, especially since several of his former collaborators (including the former President of the National Assembly, Amadou Damaro Camara, Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, his former Prime minister, and his ministers Dr Mohamed Diané, Dr Ibrahima Kourouma, Oyé Guilavogui, his intendant Kabinet Sylla, alias Bill Gates, as well as several other dignitaries of his regime) have been languishing in prison at the central house in Conakry since April 2022 , others in exile.
Alpha Condé, who ruled Guinea from December 21, 2010 to September 5, 2021, had a governance studded with a host of demonstrations by opposition political parties and certain civil society organizations (including the National Front for Defense of the Constitution). These demonstrations were very often violently repressed by the security forces, resulting in deaths (some of them shot) and injuries. And it is for these crimes that legal proceedings have been initiated against him by the Guinean courts. These lawsuits were announced on May 4, 2022 by the General Prosecutor’s Office at the Conakry Court of Appeal.
Today, this procedure is evolving. And, the hearing of the parents and relatives of the victims could start this Friday at the Court of Appeal of Conakry. These civil parties will be heard by judicial police officers as part of a “preliminary investigation”. Under normal conditions, Alpha Condé should also be heard at this stage of the procedure, but his stay outside Guinea is proving to be an obstacle.
Apart from this procedure, Alpha Condé is also summoned to appear in the trial of the massacre of September 28, 2009 which is currently being held at the court of first instance of Dixinn (relocated to the Court of Appeal of Conakry). Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, former president of the Guinean transition (between 2008 and 2009) and accused in this case, accuses Alpha Condé of being one of the elements who orchestrated the killings perpetrated on September 28, 2009 by soldiers of the presidential guard at the Conakry stadium. And, he requests his appearance on the stand for a confrontation. Suffice to say that Alpha Condé is caught in the middle of the proceedings before the courts in Guinea.
Only, the former Guinean president has no will to face his old demons; and the current authorities in Guinea apparently have no means of forcing him to return home. Thus, all the procedures concerning him will still have to wait. And, the victims and their loved ones should still suffer from patience.
Mamadou Baïlo Keïta for Guineematin.com
