A court in Guinea has sentenced former military leader Moussa Dadis Camara to 20 years in jail for crimes against humanity.
Guinea’s criminal court announced its verdict on Wednesday after a two-year trial over the leader’s deadly suppression of an opposition rally at a stadium in the suburbs of the capital, Conakry, in 2009, which saw his forces kill at least 156 people and rape 109 women, according to a United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry.
The court had announced the charges, which included murder, rape, torture and kidnapping, would be classified as crimes against humanity before sentencing Camara and seven other military commanders. Four other defendants were acquitted.
More than 100 survivors and victims’ relatives testified in the trial that started in 2022, more than a decade after members of Camara’s presidential guard, soldiers, police and militias committed the massacre.
The court ordered compensation to be paid to the victims, running from 200 million to 1.5 billion Guinean francs ($23,000 to $174,000).
Some of the victims’ relatives lauded the verdict as justice at last while others said the penalty for Camara, who escaped from prison in November last year during an armed jailbreak but was later recaptured, was not enough.
Credit: aljazeera.com
