A Guinean court is expected to deliver a long-awaited verdict in the trial of the former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara over a massacre and mass rape in September 2009, despite impending protests and a lawyers’ strike.
Camara is accused with 10 others of ordering a crackdown on thousands of unarmed protesters who were aggrieved that he had decided to stand for election the following year.
At least 150 people were killed after several hundred soldiers opened fire. Dozens of women were raped in the chaos that followed after the gendarmerie entered the Stade du 28 Septembre, named after the 1958 referendum when the former French colony voted for independence.
“This trial is symbolic, marking without a doubt a new era of breaking with a system of impunity,” said Halimatou Camara (no relation to the former dictator), a lawyer representng one of the survivors.
Tamara Aburamadan, an international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said: “It is a moment that has been long overdue. Victims have been waiting for it for so long … this is a moment that is not only important for the victims of this particular massacre, but for all Guineans.”
The fight for justice has not been without challenges. The trial has been adjourned multiple times, while the matter of sufficient compensation and medical assistance for the survivors is also yet to be decided.
Among the 11 people on trial is Aboubacar “Toumba” Diakité, who, as head of Camara’s presidential guard, admitted in December 2009 that he shot his former boss at point-blank range during a row over who should take the blame for the massacre.
Last November, Camara escaped from Conakry’s central prison during an apparent jailbreak by masked gunmen. He was later returned to the prison by security officials. Claude Pivi, another defendant who fled, is still at large.
Guinea’s current military administration, led by Mamady Doumbouya who took power after a 2021 coup, has been lauded locally for pushing for the trial.
But in the run-up to the verdict, civil society groups are also requesting the release of two activists, Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, detained since 9 July. A protest is due to take place on Wednesday.
On 16 July, lawyers in the country embarked on a two-week strike to protest against sporadic arrests of the pair and other citizens, defying a nationwide ban on demonstrations.
On the eve of the trial, the junta submitted a draft to amend the 2020 constitution to parliament. If ratified in a referendum, it will reduce presidential term limits from six years to five and not bar current members of the ruling military council from contesting the next election. Dates for the referendum and election are yet to be announced.
Human rights activists say the trial is an important moment in a country with a long history of dictators and could spur further change.
Aburamadan said she hoped the trial and verdict would “inspire other opportunities to pursue justice” for other serious crimes that had been committed in the country.
