Moussa Dadis Camara, who led Guinea for 12 months between 2008 and 2009, was found guilty of “crimes against humanity” on July 31, 2024 in Dixinn as part of the trial of the massacres that took place in 2009 in the Guinean capital. The court is still to pronounce his sentence today. On September 28, 2009, at least 156 people were killed and hundreds more injured in the repression of an opposition rally in a stadium in Conakry and its surroundings. At least 109 women were also raped.
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This is a historic day for the Guinea where, for the first time, justice is trying a former president: Moussa Dadis Camara, who led the country for 12 months, between 2008 and 2009.
The hearing was held on July 31, 2024 in a court in Conakry, where law enforcement was deployed massively. It took place in the presence of ten of the eleven accused, including Moussa Dadis Camara, who led the Guinean junta at the time. The twelfth, Claude PiviMinister of Presidential Security in 2009, remains at large since escaping from his detention center in November 2023.
The difference was striking this Wednesday with the very first hearing, almost two years ago, on September 28, 2022: the room was packed, everywhere you could see the colorful boubous of the victims. This time, many decided, with a heavy heart, to stay home and watch the last act of this extraordinary trial on television. As the verdict approached, fear gripped those who, for months, testified against the accused, all military personnel and former senior state officials.
On September 28, 2009, at least 156 people were killed by gunshots, knives, machetes or bayonets, and hundreds injured in the repression of an opposition rally in a stadium in and around Conakry, according to the report of an international commission of inquiry mandated by the UN. At least 109 women were also raped.
This extraordinary trial, open on the anniversary date of September 28, 2022was widely followed in Guinea and elsewhere on the continent. It was broadcast daily on Guinean television and on Youtube.