On September 28th, 2022, the trial for the 2009 Conakry stadium massacre opened. For the first time in the country’s history, former masters of the country, including ex-captain Moussa Dadis Camara, are being tried for their alleged participation in a mass crime of more than 150 deaths and a hundred rapes. An unprecedented trial in more ways than one.
By deciding to open the trial on September 28th, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, the current transitional president in Guinea, undoubtedly wanted to engrave his name in Guinean political history. In 1958, it was on this day that the former French colony voted for its independence, carried by its first president Ahmed Sékou Touré.
On September 28, 2009, inside the eponymous stadium in Conakry, the forces of the CNDD junta organized the execution of 156 people taking part in an opposition meeting. At least 109 women were raped during the massacre and in barracks and hospitals in the days that followed. Thirteen years later, to the day, eleven defendants, members of the CNDD, including their leader, Moussa Dadis Camara, appear before the courts of their country. The first is supposed to mark the end of impunity in a country sadly known for its countless crimes committed by the state.
“The results of these first six months of the trial are rather positive, considers Me Halimatou Camara, a lawyer for the civil parties and feminist activist. We do not yet measure the extent of the stakes after 64 years of a culture of impunity, but it is a good start. »