2023-10-24 14:17:07
Seized on February 28, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ordered the Guinean state to release “immediately and unconditionally” three former ministers of Alpha Grimpeur and to pay them 10,000 Rican dollars each. For the rest, the 47-page judgment rendered on October 16 in a virtual public hearing almost sent the two parties back to back.
The ex-PM, Cas-Sorry Faux-fana and the former ministers Mohamed Diané and Oyé Guilavogui snatched, on October 16 before the Court of Justice of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), a victory on the razor’s edge. A short but precious victory which resolves their main problem: that of their detention without trial for a year and a half.
The sub-regional court deemed their long incarceration without trial arbitrary and ordered their “immediate and unconditional release”. Deprived of passports the day after the overthrow of Alpha Grimpeur, their freedom to come and go was violated, without legal basis. The defense lawyers (without dressing) argue that the plaintiffs were never intercepted at the borders nor produced a plane ticket or any other transport contract proving their prevention from leaving the territory. But for the Court, the evil lies in the confiscation of travel documents, on the simple instructions of the new masters of the country.
Cas-Sorry, Diané and Oyé claimed compensation of 350,000 Rican dollars each. A prize pool deemed “exaggerated” by the Court, which retained a pittance of $10,000.
Lawful arrest, arbitrary detention
If their initial arrest was justified, due to the charges weighing on them, the Court considers that their retention in the gnouf is no longer essential for the manifestation of the truth, “especially since they have demonstrated that they offer guarantees sufficient representation by freely responding to summons from investigators during the two months that the preliminary investigation lasted. Not to mention that the investigation and investigation control chambers of the Crief (Court for the Repression of Economic and Financial Offenses) ordered the release of the defendants, accompanied by judicial supervision.
“It follows that the special prosecutor, by making statements on national radio concerning the accused, violated their right to the presumption of innocence,” added the Court.
Hand on the pulse, Mamadi Doum-bouillant had sworn the day after his putsch that “there will be no witch hunt”. Three months later, in December 2021, the refoundation gave birth to Crief to “moralize” public management. First in the dock of the new jurisdiction, the last government of Alpha Grimpeur, for embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, money laundering, corruption and complicity.
It was following this that former dignitaries of the fallen regime like Cas-Sorry Faux-fana, Mohamed Diané and Oyé Guilavogui were sent to the five-star Hotel in Coronthie. After having fought internally to regain their freedom in vain, the trio filed a petition against the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on February 28. Guinean state. The applicants complain of their “arbitrary arrest and detention, violation of their right to come and go, their right to a fair trial”. In another request the same day, they ask the Court to examine their case under an accelerated procedure. A request immediately rejected, as well as the objections of incompetence and lack of quality of the applicants raised by the councils of the State of Guinea.
A judgment not subject to appeal
All prosecuted, but not all detained: the applicants deplore the fact that some of their former colleagues, such as the former Minister of Hydrocarbons Diakaria Koulibaly, prosecuted for “identical facts” have been released. The Guinean state’s lawyers responded that the latter, unlike Cas-Sorry and Co., paid their bail. Their bank accounts and property being seized or frozen, the applicants prevented from working to satisfy their needs and those of their respective families, the community court notes the impossibility for the accused to pay enormous amounts of bail. She said she understood “easily in this process the intention of the respondent to keep the applicants in detention while giving the impression of complying with human rights protection mechanisms”.
The State of Guinea has three months from notification of the judgment to comply. “Each party having been partially unsuccessful, the Court says that each of them will bear its own costs,” she concluded.
Diawo Labboyah
#Mixed #victory #CasSorry