Guinea charges Alpha Conde for assassinations, torture and kidnapping

Conakry's public prosecutor, appointed by Guinea's ruling junta in 2021, announced on Wednesday charges against former President Alpha Conde and some 30 former senior officials under his presidency, including assassinations, torture and kidnapping.

Among the personalities targeted by the prosecution and appearing on a list communicated to journalists by prosecutor Alphonse Charles Wright are, in addition to Mr. Conde, who was overthrown by the military in September 2021, a former president of the Constitutional Court, former presidents of the Assembly, a former prime minister and a host of former ministers, deputies and security service officials.

According to the document, the magistrate has given "instructions for the purposes of legal proceedings by way of denunciation" against Mr. Condé and 26 other personalities for "murder, assassination and complicity", enforced disappearances, detentions, abductions, acts of torture, intentional assault and battery, rape and sexual assault, and acts of looting.

The magistrate said in a message to AFP that these proceedings were launched following a complaint by the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), a collective that led for months from October 2019 the protest against a third term of Alpha Conde.

The repression of these protests, often brutal in this country accustomed to political violence, has resulted in dozens of deaths, almost all civilians.

The Guinean judiciary has ordered the opening of investigations into alleged crimes committed under former President Alpha Conde, who was overthrown by a coup d'état in September 2021.

"I instruct you (...) to initiate without delay or to initiate legal proceedings or to refer the matter to the competent jurisdiction or jurisdictions for alleged acts committed during the period from 2010 to 2020 by persons who have yet to be identified," said the Attorney General of the Conakry Court of Appeal Alphonse Charles Wright in a letter consulted by AFP on Friday and sent to prosecutors under his instructions.

The period mentioned covers the period during which Alpha Conde ruled Guinea (2010-2021) before being overthrown by a military coup led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who has since been installed as transitional president.

The attorney general cited murders, enforced disappearances, arrests or abductions by state agents, torture, and violations of individual freedoms as among the facts to be investigated.