2023-11-04 20:26:00
“Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was found safe and sound and taken back to prison,” army information director (Dirpa) Ansoumane Toumany Camara told AFP, without specifying the circumstances of the capture.
One of the former president’s lawyers (2008-2009), Jocamey Haba, confirmed in a brief exchange with AFP that his client was back in cell.
Only Colonel Claude Pivi remains untraceable among the three or four men (depending on sources) taken from prison during a commando operation, said the director of Dirpa.
He “is actively wanted”, but “he has no chance of leaving the country since Conakry is cordoned off”, he added.
Two or three other former officials currently being tried like him for a massacre perpetrated in 2009 under his presidency had also been taken from prison, said a minister and lawyers, without it being clear whether Moussa Dadis Camara had escaped from his prison. voluntarily. One of them was taken back.
The army has affirmed its loyalty to the junta in place since September 2021 and called on the population to calm down. The general staff assured in a message broadcast repeatedly on state television that the situation had been “quickly brought under control and returned to normal”.
“It was around 5:00 in the morning. Heavily armed men burst into the central house in Conakry,” said Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright. “They managed to leave with four accused in the trial of the events of September 28 (2009), notably Captain Moussa Dadis Camara,” he said.
He assured that the borders were closed. “I tell the people of Guinea that they will be found wherever they are,” he said.
One of the released prisoners, Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara, secretary of state in charge of the fight against drugs and organized crime under Dadis Camara, was recaptured, he said. The detainee’s lawyer, Jean Sovogui, assured that he had escaped what he described as his “captors”.
“The hunt for the others continues,” the staff said.
Captain Dadis Camara’s lawyer, Jocamey Haba, raised the possibility that his client was taken against his will.
“I still think he was kidnapped. He has confidence in the justice of his country, which is why he will never try to escape,” he added, referring to the ongoing trial.
“We wanted to go to the port where I work, but we were prevented (from passing) at the entrance to the Kaloum peninsula, where armored vehicles were deployed,” he added.
This bout of fever immediately awakened the memory of the putsch, carried out around the same time, on September 5, 2021 when Colonel Mamady Doumbouya stormed the presidential palace with his men and overthrew civilian President Alpha Condé by the weapons.
The “compass” of justice
In a press release read on state television, the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Ibrahima Sory Bangoura, presented this raid as an attempt to “sabotage” the reform action carried out under the leadership of Colonel Doumbouya.
“We, the defense and security forces, reaffirm our unwavering commitment to these reforms which are crucial to the progress and stability of our nation,” he said.
In addition to Moussa Dadis Camara and Moussa Tiegboro Camara, news sites reported the escape of Claude Pivi and Blaise Goumou, also tried among a dozen former military and government officials for the 2009 massacre.
Guinea, a country with a tormented political history since independence from France, has just entered the second year of this trial, for which Moussa Dadis Camara had been detained since the start of the hearings in September 2022 .
They respond to a litany of murders, acts of torture, rapes and other kidnappings committed on September 28, 2009 by security forces at the 28-Septembre stadium in the suburbs of Conakry, where tens of thousands of sympathizers gathered. of the opposition, and surrounding areas.
At least 156 people were killed and hundreds injured, and at least 109 women raped, according to the report of a commission of inquiry mandated by the UN.
This trial opened when the country’s new strongman, Colonel Doumbouya, had promised after his coup to rebuild the Guinean state and make justice his “compass”.
After the 2021 putsch, Colonel Doumbouya was inaugurated president and under international pressure committed to handing over power to elected civilians within two years from January 2023. The opposition accuses him of authoritarian drift and speaks of “emerging dictatorship”.
AFP
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