Guinea: five opponents charged and imprisoned in Conakry

Five opposition figures arrested last week in Guinea, in the wake of the violence that followed the controversial re-election of President Alpha Condé, have been indicted for "attacking the fundamental interests of the nation" and imprisoned in Conakry, confirmed on Monday.  November 16 their lawyer.

Cellou Baldé, Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, Abdoulaye Bah and Etienne Soropogui were brought before an examining magistrate of the court of Dixinn, in the suburbs of Conakry, on Monday, who accused them of "manufacturing and possessing weapons of war and  fundamental interests of the nation, ”said their lawyer, Salifou Béavogui.  They were placed under arrest warrant and transferred to the civil prison in Conakry, according to the same source.  Another opponent, Ibrahima Chérif Bah, had been indicted for the same reasons and placed under arrest warrant on Friday, according to Béavogui.

“Our customers are always separated (from each other),” Béavogui told a group of journalists on Monday.  They are "confident, morale high because they are convinced of their innocence, they are simply prosecuted for political reasons", he added.  The Dixinn court prosecutor, Sidy Souleymane Ndiaye, declined to speak.

 The prosecution had declared that these five men are among the six opponents declared as "actively" wanted following the electoral violence, and more precisely for having "uttered threats likely to disturb public security and order".

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 Cellou Baldé, Ibrahima Chérif Bah, Ousmane Gaoual Diallo and Abdoulaye Bah are officials of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), the party led by Condé's main presidential challenger, Cellou Dalein Diallo.  Etienne Soropogui is also an opposition figure who called to vote for Diallo.  The sixth opponent, Sékou Koundouno, also a member of the UFDG, was still wanted on Monday.

 Conde, definitively proclaimed on November 7 by the Constitutional Court as president of Guinea for a third consecutive term at the age of 82, after months of a dispute that cost the lives of dozens of civilians, affirms that no  A "witch hunt" was not underway in his country.  “There is no witch hunt.  Nobody is targeted, except the people who are accused of having sponsored the violence around the recent presidential election, declared Condé, interviewed Friday, November 13 by AFP and RFI radio.  “Since we have arrested people, it is up to the courts to decide,” he added.

The opposition denounces an operation aimed at muzzling it and making people forget the "electoral coup" to which President Alpha Condé has committed itself, according to it.

Source Lifigara.fr