Guinea Trial Postponed After Former President Camara Pleads Illness

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, Guinea’s military ruler, speaks at his office at the Alpha Yaya Diallo camp in Conakry on October 1, 2009. AFP

On Monday, proceedings in a trial over a 2009 massacre in Guinea were adjourned for a week after former dictator Moussa Dadis Camara stated that he was too ill to testify.

Survivors of the massacre and relatives of the deceased had been waiting for Camara to take the stand.

However, the former military ruler, who arrived at the bar in civilian clothes and walked with difficulty, stated that he was ill.

“With all due respect to your distinguished tribunal,” Camara said, “I have already informed the director of the penitentiary, the head doctor of the penitentiary, (that) I have been ill for some time.”

He described himself as “completely weak, from malaria I caught.”

“I’m not above the law, but I sincerely believe I can’t (testify) right now.”

Camara and ten other former military and government officials are accused of killing 156 people and raping at least 109 women during a pro-junta rally in a Conakry stadium in September 2009.

They face a variety of charges, including murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, and looting. Camara faces “personal criminal responsibility and command responsibility.”

“The court cannot force you to say or do something you do not want to say or do,” said Chief Judge Ibrahima Sory Tounkara. The court accepts your statement that you are unable to testify.”

Mr. Camara, you have a week,” he said, adjourning the trial until December 12.

Camara seized power in December 2008, shortly after the death of Guinea’s second post-independence president, General Lansana Conte, who had ruled for 24 years.

Camara was shot in the head during an attempted assassination in December 2009 and traveled to Morocco for medical treatment.

He fled to Burkina Faso, where he was indicted by Guinean magistrates in July 2015 for his alleged role in the stadium massacre.

The 58-year-old former strongman was arrested on September 27, a day before the long-awaited trial began in Conakry’s purpose-built court.