The trial of the activists of the Dynamique des organisations de la société civile, which opened on 12 August, continued on Wednesday 14 August at the Court of First Instance of Mafanco. Two of the three activists were sentenced to 1 year in prison with a six-month suspended sentence.
Mamadou Korka Diallo, Mamadou Ramadan Diallo and Amadou Bah were prosecuted for illegal assembly on the public highway. They denied the charges against them. But the judge, Mamadi 2 Magassouba, sentenced Mamadou Korka Diallo and Mamadou Ramadan Diallo to one year in prison with a six-month suspended sentence. He acquitted Amadou Bah, for an offence not constituted.
Pleadings and requisitions
After requesting and obtaining the requalification of the facts, the prosecutor Salimou Diaby, requested the acquittal of Amadou Bah. He then asked the judge to recognize Mamadou Korka Diallo and Mamadou Ramadan Diallo guilty of the facts. He requested that they be sentenced to one year of imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 fg. The prosecutor Diaby recalled that the right to demonstrate is a Constitutional right defended by the Transition Charter and supranational organizations, but that the law that governs this right must be respected. “You have young executives who certainly want to defend democracy, for development. What saddens me is to use Constitutional law without referring to the law that governs its application. The spirit that these young people defend is certainly commendable, but the methods are Machiavellian. Rights, if they must be exercised, it is with respect for those of others.”
Fodé Mohamed Béavogui, the defense lawyer, indicated that “until proven otherwise, the offense has not been committed. The proof has not been reported that the defendants were arrested on the public highway while demonstrating. This is why we ask you to acquit them,” he argued. The lawyer asks the judge for three favors: First, dismiss the defendants of the facts of non-prosecution for unconstituted offenses, retain them in bonds for the benefit of the doubt or a broad circumstance.
Facts
Amadou Korka, who admits to being a member of Dynamique, claims to have been arrested at his workplace, taken first to an unknown location, before being taken to the gendarmerie command, late at night.
As for Amadou Bah, who holds a master’s degree in public law and is president of the NGO Demos, he said he is not a member of the Dynamique des Organisations de la société civile. He said he was arrested after the 1 p.m. prayer as he was leaving the mosque. “I was waiting for a taxi or a motorcyclist on the side of the road to go to Nongo when individuals in a smoke-stained vehicle pulled up. A civilian got out to tell me that I looked like someone he suspected. A few minutes later, gendarmes arrived in their pick-up and ordered me to get in. That’s how I was arrested and taken to the High Command of the gendarmerie where I was questioned.”
Mamadou Ramadan Diallo, who signed the newsletter, acknowledges calling for the demonstration but says it did not take place. Therefore, he cannot be prosecuted for a demonstration that did not take place.
Reclassification of the facts
After the debates on the illegal assembly, the prosecutor considered that in light of the debates, another qualification had to be found. This is why he requested the requalification of the facts of assembly as prohibited public demonstrations. The judge withdrew, after about ten minutes, he returned and requalified the facts as prohibited public demonstrations. Mamadi 2 Magassouba ordered the resumption of the debates. Concerning this new offense, the defendants denied everything. They reiterated the circumstances of their arrest. Not at all!
Let us recall that the Dynamics of Civil Society Organizations had called for demonstrations on July 30 and 31 to demand, among other things, the release of FNDC leaders, Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla alias Foniké Menguè, abducted at night and held incommunicado since July 9.
Ibn Adama
2024-08-14 18:27:36