A Guinea court will on Wednesday give a verdict in the trial of ex-dictator Moussa Dadis Camara over a 2009 massacre in a stadium in which more than 150 people were killed and scores of women raped.
On September 28, 2009, and in the days that followed, members of Camara’s presidential guard, soldiers, police and militia cracked down on an opposition rally at a stadium in the suburbs of the capital Conakry.
At least 156 people were killed, 109 women were raped and hundreds wounded, according to a UN-mandated commission of inquiry, in one of the darkest chapters in the West African nation’s history.
Victims have been waiting years for justice, doubting a trial would ever take place. It was finally brought before a court under a junta which seized power in 2021.
Along with 11 other government and military officials, Dadis Camara is charged with murder, sexual violence, torture, abduction and kidnapping.
Dadis Camara always denied any responsibility, blaming his subordinates.
The leader’s landmark trial — which began on September 28, 2022 — has gripped the West African country, the drama from the courtroom beamed to the nation’s televisions and radios.
Judges heard from 11 defendants as well as a dozen witnesses. Some 100 victims provided chilling testimonies.
Alfa Amadou DS Bah, a lawyer for the civil claimants, told AFP he had urged the state to protect the victims and their families after the verdict.
“I hope that the accused will be convicted of crimes against humanity and that substantial reparations will be granted to the victims so that they can turn this dark page in their lives,” he said.
The chief prosecutor has called for Dadis Camara and the six other defendants to be sentenced to life imprisonment, and to classify the charges against them as crimes against humanity — something the judges said they would not rule on until the verdict.
‘Against impunity’
The defence lawyers have pleaded for the acquittal of the defendants, arguing that reclassifying the charges on verdict day would rob them of an opportunity to defend themselves and violate their right to a fair trial.
Both the accused and the plaintiffs will have 15 days to appeal the verdict, while the prosecutor’s office will have two months.
“This verdict is a long-awaited moment of truth for the victims and their families,” said Tamara Aburamadan, an international justice legal advisor for Human Rights Watch.
But the trial has taken place against a background of repression of both the opposition and the media.
Civil society organisations have called for demonstrations — banned by the government — on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to protest the “forced disappearence” of pro-democracy activists Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah.
International rights organisations have stressed that this trial was the first to challenge decades of autocratic rule in Guinea, where security forces are seldom held accountable and practically untouchable, according to a UN probe.
“We’re expecting the verdict in this historic trial to send a strong message in the fight against the impunity of our leaders,” Alseny Sall, a spokesman for the Guinean Human Rights Organisation, told AFP.