Guinea to bring 60 people to justice for unrest

Some 60 people, including opposition figures detained for months, will be tried in Guinea for deadly protests surrounding last year’s presidential election, according to the government.

Alpha Condé’s candidacy for a third term has been met with months of protests from political opposition and civil society groups, which the security forces have countered with sometimes brutal force, and dozens of people are dead after the protests began in October 2019.

In March 2020, at the same time as the legislative elections, Guinea organized a referendum to modify the constitution and allow the president to serve more than two terms.

Despite mass opposition and demands for an “electoral coup”, Condé, 83, was re-elected in the first round in October 2020.

The United States, the European Union and France have questioned the credibility of the vote.

Hundreds of people were arrested before and after the polls, human rights groups said.

Government spokesman Tibou Kamara said in a statement Friday evening that 57 of those arrested would stand trial.

The list includes eight people accused of the murder of three gendarmes and a soldier in an attack on an ore train near Conakry just days after the presidential vote.

The spokesperson also cited Ibrahima Cherif Bah and Ousmane Gaoual Diallo at the trial of the main opposition democratic trade union party UFDG, whose leader claimed victory in the presidential election.

The two men were arrested after the ballot and charged, according to their lawyers, with manufacturing, possession and use of weapons and attacking the nation.

The spokesman added that 40 people had been released after the dismissal of the charges against them.