APA – Conakry (Guinea) After almost ten months in prison, the Guinean activists were provisionally released on 10 May thanks to the mediation of clerics.
By Aboubacar Siddy Diallo
This marks the end of a long legal battle.
Ibrahima Diallo, Oumar Sylla alias Foniké Mengué, leaders of the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), and Saikou Yaya Barry, executive secretary of the Union of Republican Forces (UFR), were acquitted on Tuesday 13 June.
They had been charged with “criminal participation in an assembly, complicity in the destruction of public and private buildings and complicity in assault.”
In its decision published on Tuesday, the Dixinn Court of First Instance dismissed the three leaders from the case.
Ibrahima Diallo and Foniké Mengué, both leaders of the FNDC, were released, while Saykou Barry was tried in absentia.
The leader of Sidya Touré’s party is out of the country on medical grounds.
“We are disappointed to have spent almost ten months in arbitrary prison… We knew we were innocent. This verdict has brought us comfort,” Ibrahima Diallo told the press, adding that he was determined to “continue the civil and democratic struggle until the final victory.”
A victory for democracy
The national coordinator of the FNDC described the verdict as a victory for democracy over dictatorship, referring to the transitional regime led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya since September 2021, following a coup against Alpha Condé.
“This verdict shows that we spent 10 months in prison in vain. We were in prison on false charges, we were hostages,” said Oumar Sylla, alias Foniké Mengué.
Like his unfortunate comrade, the activist “calls on all pro-democracy activists to continue the struggle until the final victory.”
ASD/ac/lb/as/APA