Landmark verdict on 2009 massacre ‘sounds toll against impunity’, but military rulers continue to repress opposition and media.

A court in Guinea has sentenced former military leader Moussa Dadis Camara to 20 years in jail for crimes against humanity.

Guinea’s criminal court announced its verdict on Wednesday after a two-year trial over the leader’s deadly suppression of an opposition rally at a stadium in the suburbs of the capital, Conakry, in 2009, which saw his forces kill at least 156 people and rape 109 women, according to a United Nations-mandated commission of inquiry.

The court had announced the charges, which included murder, rape, torture and kidnapping, would be classified as crimes against humanity before sentencing Camara and seven other military commanders. Four other defendants were acquitted.

More than 100 survivors and victims’ relatives testified in the trial that started in 2022, more than a decade after members of Camara’s presidential guard, soldiers, police and militias committed the massacre.

The court ordered compensation to be paid to the victims, running from 200 million to 1.5 billion Guinean francs ($23,000 to $174,000).

Some of the victims’ relatives lauded the verdict as justice at last while others said the penalty for Camara, who escaped from prison in November last year during an armed jailbreak but was later recaptured, was not enough.

“The convictions do not match the crimes. Our sisters were raped, our brothers massacred, bodies reported missing,” said Safiatou Balde, 25, a relative of one of the victims.

Alfa Amadou DS Bah, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case, underlined the importance of the judgement.

“It’s the first time a former head of state has been convicted for such serious crimes, and senior military officers too,” he said. “I think that this decision must sound the toll against impunity in this country.”

Human Rights Watch also welcomed the judgement. The verdict put “high-level perpetrators in Guinea and elsewhere on notice that justice can prevail”, said Tamara Aburamadan, an international justice legal counsel for the rights group.

Defence lawyers had argued that reclassifying the charges as crimes against humanity on the day of the ruling would rob defendants of the opportunity to defend themselves and infringe on their right to a fair trial.

Both the accused and the plaintiffs have 15 days to appeal the verdict.

The trial has taken place against a background of continued repression by Guinea’s military rulers of both the opposition and the media.