APA- Conakry (Guinea) – The last president of the National Assembly under Guinea’s deposed president Alpha Condé was released on parole Monday, October 9.
By Aboubacar Siddy Diallo
Amadou Damaro Camara has been granted provisional freedom. The short-lived speaker of Guinea’s parliament (April 2020 – September 2021) was detained seven months after the coup against President Alpha Condé.
Indicted on April 28, 2022, he is being prosecuted by the Court for the Repression of Economic and Financial Offences (CRIEF) over the alleged embezzlement of fifteen billion Guinean francs, about one billion CFA francs. This sum was earmarked for the construction of the future headquarters of the Guinean Parliament.
On Monday, the 71-year-old Guinean politician, a trained economist appeared for the first time before the CRIEF Trial Chamber and pleaded not guilty to charges of “embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, money laundering, corruption in the public and private sectors, illicit enrichment and complicity.”
In a lengthy speech before Judge Francis Kova Zoumanigui, the former president of the ninth legislature explained how he managed the fifteen billion GNF now suspected of being embezzled.
Convinced that their client had given answers that would make people believe in his good faith in this case, the defense lawyers submitted a request for conditional release to the court, which responded favourably.
Thus, after a year and a half in prison, Camara returned home on Monday evening to recover before the start of the new judicial year in Guinea at the beginning of October 2023.
ASD/odl/te/as/APA