APA-Conakry (Guinea) The trial of the 28 September 2009 massacre which has been taking place at the Criminal Court of Dixinn in Guinea has been deferred.
After the hearing phase of the 11 defendants from September 2022 to early February 2023, the testimonies by victims began on the 14th of last month.
Since the beginning of this other phase, four victims of rape and sequestration have taken to the stand to give their testimonies.
The women recounted in detail the events that took place at the main stadium in Conakry on September 28, 2009 and the days following the incident, when their lives were turned upside down.
The cross exminiation of the victims was scheduled to continue on Monday 6 March but was postponed to Monday 13 March, because Moussa Dadis Camara, one of the main defendants in this case has been taken ill.
According to Lanciné Sylla, one of Toumba Diakité’s attorneys, the ex junta leader only attended one of the hearings involving the female victims.
“The hearing is postponed so that Dadis will appear since the victims have begun to be heard. He (Moussa Dadis Camara) has only followed the hearing of the first victim. He has not followed anything under the pretext that he is sick,” said the lawyer.
Incarcerated since last September for acts of “complicity in murder, rape, torture and looting committed during the repression of an opposition demonstration on 28 September 2009 and the following days”, this is the third time that the trial has been postponed due to the illness of the former head of the Guinean junta.
The local press reports that Moussa Dadis Camara has had his foot burnt since 24 February 2023.
After the appearance of Oury Bailo Bah, the very first victim to testify about the disappearance of his brother Hassane Bah, who died on 28 September at the stadium, the court decided to hold the hearings in camera.
This decision follows the appearance of the women victims of rape whose lawyers for the civil party submitted this request, which was accepted by the court.
Since then, four women victims have taken to the stand at the Dixinn special court to give their versions of the facts.
ASD/te/lb/as/APA