Guinea: Moussa Dadis Camara to challenge crimes against humanity conviction

Lawyers for Guinea's former military leader, Moussa Dadis Camara, said on Thursday he will appeal his conviction on Wednesday for crimes against humanity.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges stemming from the 2009 massacre of more than 150 people during a pro-democracy rally in the capital Conakry.

Demonstrators at the stadium were protesting against Camara’s plans to run for president when soldiers opened fire on them. He had taken power in a coup the previous year.

Camara fled the country after surviving an assassination attempt not long after the massacre, but returned from exile in September 2022 to face justice, insisting that he was innocent.

While in jail late last year, Camara was released by gunmen who stormed the country’s main prison but was back in custody hours later as his lawyer said he had been kidnapped.

More than 100 survivors and relatives of victims testified in the trial that started in November 2022.

Just before sentencing, the court said the charges, which included murder, rape, torture and kidnapping, had been reclassified to crimes against humanity.

Camara’s lawyers said in a statement that during the nearly 2-year trial, he had not “been heard or required to explain the elements constituting a crime against humanity”.