Former National Assembly speaker Amadou Damaro Camara was due to appear before the Court for the Repression of Economic Crimes (CRIEF) in Conakry on April 6 but did not appear due to illness.
The President of the Trial Chamber, Francis Kova Zoumanigui, decided to transport him to the Conakry prison in order to try him there in the presence of the media.
He announced that the hearing would take place on April 25.
On Thursday, Amadou Damaro Camara was to answer to charges of “misappropriation of public funds, illicit enrichment, money laundering, corruption in the public and private sectors, illicit enrichment and complicity.”
At the start of the hearing, the Special Prosecutor’s Office announced that the former president of Guinea’s ninth legislature was in poor health and “under perfusion,” according to Lazare Mamady Beauret, Deputy Special Prosecutor of CRIEF.
On the basis of this statement, Santiba Kouyaté, the defendant’s lawyer, asked the court to release his client on the grounds of illness.
However, in view of the proof of hospitalisation signed by the administrator of the Central House of Conakry, the President of the Trial Chamber of CRIEF declared that the court rejects the request for provisional release made by Camara’s lawyer.
In addition, in view of the medical report of hospitalisation the court declared and ruled that, in application of the provisions of article 483 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the court will go to the current place of detention of Amadou Damaro Camara, located at the Central House of Conakry, on Tuesday April 25 at 10:00 a.m., in order to hear him at a public hearing, contradictory and mediated.
Camara, a former strongman of the regime of Alpha Conde who was overthrown in a military coup on September 5, 2021 has already been charged.
He has been placed under arrest since April 28, 2022 by CRIEF.
ASD/lb/as/APA