Guinea’s Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright has announced an investigation into former President Alpha Conde for alleged treason, two years after he was removed from power in a military coup. In September 2021, Guinea’s first democratically elected leader, Conde, was removed from office by an elite army unit led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya. The coup came after he sought to extend his tenure with a third term and violently suppressed protests against the election bid.
Guinea’s military leaders have launched numerous judicial probes into Conde, including for alleged corruption, assassination, torture, kidnapping, and rape. The latest probe will look into “alleged acts of treason, criminal conspiracy and complicity in the illicit possession of arms and ammunition,” according to a letter from Wright to the public prosecutor in Guinea’s capital, Conakry.
Guinea is one of several West and Central African states to have undergone a coup in recent years, with Gabon, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger all having seen at least one coup each since 2020. The commanders of Guinea’s armed forces have promised to hand up power to civilians by 2026.
Another ex-president in legal turmoil, Moussa Dadis Camara, was briefly freed from prison in a jailbreak earlier this month. Camara, a former army officer who came to power in a coup, has been detained since September 2022 on charges of murder, sexual violence, torture, abduction, and kidnapping.
