The West African nation of Guinea will finally put on trial the alleged perpetrators of a massacre in 2009 which saw at least 157 people killed and more than 100 women raped, the justice minister has announced.
Justice minister Charles Alphonse Wright said on Friday that he hoped the trial – set to begin on the day of the 13th anniversary of the September 28 massacre – “will revisit our history, our past, that we all emerge from this trial with a new vision of our Guinea”.
More than a dozen suspects including the country’s former military coup-leader, Moussa Dadis Camara, have been charged with crimes in connection with the horrors of the 2009 attack, when security forces opened fire on people protesting in a stadium in the capital, Conakry.
Camara fled into exile in Burkina Faso after he survived an assassination attempt several months after the stadium massacre.
Last year, Camara returned to Conakry from Burkina, telling his supporters that he had faith in the country’s courts.
Camara said he was ready to face justice, but has since returned to Burkina
