Among the eleven defendants in the trial of the 28 September 2009 massacre in Conakry, Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara pleaded not guilty at the eponymous trial which resumed Monday October 10.
The trial of the 28 September massacre resumed in Conakry on Tuesday, after a suspension of a few days.
The in-depth debates were started the day before with the hearing of Moussa Tiegboro Camara.
Mr. Camara was Secretary of State in charge of Special Services, drug busting and organized crime at the time of the events, which left at least 157 people dead, many missing and many women raped.
In the dock, Mr. Camara denied before Judge Ibrahima Sory Tounkara the charges against him: murder, rape, torture, and looting committed during the crackdown on an opposition rally on September 28, 2009, and the days that followed.
Under cross-examination by the prosecution and the civil party’s lawyers, the soldier remained calm, rejecting outright any responsibility for the deaths of civilians and their eventual burial in a mass grave.
“I don’t know where the mass grave is. Moreover, it is you who are telling me, and I am not aware of the existence of any mass grave,” he replied to one of the lawyers.
However, he pointed out at the hearing that he had rescued political leaders who were being beaten up by men of Toumba, the nickname for Lieutenant Aboubacar Diakite, the former aide-de-camp to Moussa Dadis Camara, the former head of the junta who is the main figure among those accused of the September 28 massacre.
All round dismissals
As soon as the trial resumed, the court rejected the request to place Moussa Dadis Camara under house arrest.
Having been lving in exile in Burkina Faso until then, he was imprisoned a few days after his return to Guinea to be put on trial, convinced that he could clear his name.
He regrets, however, that the court did not give him the “respect” that befits a former head of state.
The court also denied the request for provisional release of his co-accused, including Lieutenant Toumba Diakite who has been under arrest since 2016 after being extradited by Senegal, where he fled after shooting Dadis Camara.
He appeared much weakened at the opening of the trial, according to his lawyers.
The request for medical evacuation of his counsel did not move the judge to grant it.
Ibrahima Sory Tounkara, the president of the court in charge of judging the alleged perpetrators of the September 28 massacre, explained that Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite “did not provide any medical documents to support his request for medical evacuation.”
The judge also stated that it was by virtue of the Code of Criminal Procedure that the eleven defendants were required to be detained on the eve of the trial and that the house arrest measure was only applicable to foreign detainees.
In addition to Moussa Tiegboro Camara, Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, and Moussa Dadis Camara, less than a dozen former military and government officials are also being prosecuted over the September 28 massacre.
They were all present in the court specially built to host the trial of the tragic events that took place thirteen years ago at the September 28 stadium in Conakry.
According to the report of an international commission of inquiry mandated by the United Nations, no less than 157 people were killed, hundreds injured, and nearly 109 women raped.
A nightmarish memory
Back then, the opposition wanted to demonstrate its strength and dissuade Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, who became head of the military junta after the death of General Lansana Conte in power for 24 years, from running in the January 2010 presidential election.
It defied a ban by the military authorities to stage what was intended as a peaceful rally at the stadium in Conakry.
This date, which until then proudly recalled the “No” of Sekou Toure, father of the country’s independence, to the referendum establishing a Franco-African “Community” proposed by General de Gaulle in 1958, became half a century later a nightmare for Guineans.
The crowd went to the stadium and forced open its doors that were closed.
After a festive atmosphere which lasted until noon, according to witnesses, soldiers began firing tear gas into the stadium from outside.
They then barricaded access to the stadium before opening fire on the protesters.
According to eyewitness accounts, some people died jumping from the stands while others were trampled to death.
Several families that lost loved ones and the victims continued to demand a trial since then, even though the investigations by Guinean magistrates had been closed since late 2017.
The regime of Alpha Conde (2010-2021) lacked the political will to tackle this difficult judicial matter.
According to some observers, the former president who was overthrown on September 5, 2021 by the National Committee of the Rally for Development (CNRD) headed by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, did not want to alienate a number of officers after his election.
His ouster therefore allowed for the trial to go ahead, a political opportunity for the current head of the military junta, currently at odds with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) over the duration of the transition to democracy.
ODL/te/fss/as/APA