Fairness of Planned Trials for Guinea's Ex-Officials In Doubt

Analysts have said that decision by Guinea's transitional military government to prosecute former president Alpha Condé and 26 of his top officials, will likely be marred by doubt over the fairness of their trials.

Condé was ousted by the military in 2021 and placed under house arrest, which the military regime lifted on April 22, 2022, but it is clear that he is not free to leave the country.

Charges filed against Conde and the others include acts of violence while in office, complicity in murder, assault and the destruction of property. Other charges include detention, torture, rapes, kidnapping, disappearances, other sexual abuses, and looting.

A 2019 Afrobarometer survey revealed that over 90% of Guineans consider the judiciary as being corrupt. Jesper Bjarnesen, a senior researcher at Denmark-based Nordic Africa Institute, told VOA that this trial is arguably a diversion. "As for judicial credibility, I am not sure that a temporary transitional government is the best facilitator of a legal process against the former president and his cadres", Bjarnesen said.

Alix Boucher at the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies said that the junta's timeline for prosecuting Condé and the 26 others, suggest that it is set on clinging to power. The military recently said it needed 39 months to transition back to civilian rule, refuting demands by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to do it much sooner.

InFocus

The military junta after the arrest of former president Alpha Condé (file photo).

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