2023-11-06 19:26:54
This is not a failed adaptation of The great Escape which Guineans attended this Saturday, November 4. Four high-ranking prisoners, including former Guinean President Moussa Dadis Camara, escaped from Conakry central prison thanks to a heavily armed commando. Three of them returned to prison a few hours later, including the former Guinean president. Their lawyers explained that, far from fleeing, they had in fact been kidnapped.
Internal complicity
To date, only one of the four prisoners remains at large. This is Colonel Claude Pivi, the former security minister of Moussa Dadis Camara, in power between 2008 and 2009.
The spokesperson for the Guinean transitional government, Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, declared himself confident about his upcoming arrest: «Given the arrangements put in place, there is very little chance, we can’t say none, but there is very little chance that he will escape. The best would be for him to find a way to make himself available to justice.” he explained on RFI. For the Guinean media Sera timeit is his son who “would be the conductor” of this commando operation. His lawyer denied his involvement on Monday.
This spectacular undertaking required internal complicity. According to the first elements of the investigation delivered by the Guinean government on Sunday November 5, it would be soldiers from the Autonomous Battalion of Airborne Troops (Bata), responsible for monitoring the prison, who would have allowed the intrusion of the commando. The ruling junta dismissed 58 officers, soldiers and prison service workers for ” heavy mistake “ or “failure to serve”according to a list read in full on Sunday evening by state television.
“September 28 Massacre”
The four prisoners were on trial for their involvement in the murders, torture, rapes and kidnappings committed on September 28, 2009 and the following days in a stadium in the suburbs of Conakry, where tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered. : a tragedy known as the “September 28 massacre” which, according to the UN, cost the lives of at least 156 people, injured 1,400, and at least 109 women were raped.
Their trial, constantly postponed for thirteen years, opened last year at the request of Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, the head of the junta which overthrew former President Alpha Condé on September 5, 2021. “This trial is a rare example of national accountability for high-profile suspects, and should inspire other similar justice efforts,” congratulated Human Rights Watch, a month ago. The trial was due to resume on Monday, November 6 for these defendants, but it was adjourned due to a bar strike, unrelated to Saturday’s events.
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