CONAKRY, Guinea — A Guinean court on Wednesday sentenced former military junta leader Moussa “Dadis” Camara to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of crimes against humanity in the 2009 stadium massacre by the army that killed at least 157 people and left dozens of women raped.
Guinea’s Criminal Court convicted Camara and seven other high-ranking officials after a lengthy trial on charges of murder, kidnapping and rape that were reclassified as “crimes against humanity” on Wednesday. Four other defendants were acquitted.
More than 100 survivors and relatives of the victims testified in the trial that began in November 2022, more than a decade after the massacre and under pressure from families and activists demanding justice.
Protesters at the stadium in September 2009 were protesting Camara’s plans to run for president when soldiers opened fire on them and raped dozens of women. The then military leader had staged a coup the previous year.
The junta at the time said “uncontrolled” elements of the military carried out the rapes and murders. But Camara’s top advisers were at the stadium and did nothing to stop the massacre, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
Many of the people who died in the stadium protest were shot, crushed or stabbed, while some women were taken from their hiding places and gang-raped by uniformed men over several days, witnesses said.
Many were unable to flee the gunfire after Camara’s presidential guard surrounded the stadium and blocked the exits, survivors said.
It took several days before the victims’ families were allowed to come collect the bodies, they said. during the trial. Many, however, never found the bodies of their relatives.
Camara fled into exile after surviving an assassination attempt several months after the massacre, but returned to Guinea more than a decade later.
“If I am here before you it is because of my patriotism, otherwise I would not have agreed to come.” he said on his first day in court He will face trial in 2022, adding that he was asleep while the massacre took place.
While in prison late last year, Camara was freed by gunmen who broke into the country’s main prison but was returned to custody hours later when his lawyer said he had been kidnapped.
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