- Title: FILE: Guinea junta chief pardons former military leader over stadium massacre
- Date: 29th March 2025
- Summary: GUINEA, CONAKRY (FILE - JULY 31, 2024) (REUTERS) MEN ACCUSED OF COMMITTING CONAKRY STADIUM MASSACRE, INCLUDING FORMER JUNTA LEADER, MOUSSA DADIS CAMARA (BLACK AND GOLD ROBES), ENTERING COURTROOM AND SITTING DOWN JUDGES SITTING AT FRONT OF COURTROOM CAMARA SPEAKING TO SECURITY GUARDS JUDGES, AUDIENCE AND CONVICTED MEN STANDING AFTER VERDICT POLICE CONVOY DRIVING AWAY FROM C
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Camara Conakry Crime Dadis Government Law Lawyer Stadium guinea junta justice massacre politics
- Location: CONAKRY, GUINEA
- City: CONAKRY, GUINEA
- Country: Guinea
- Topics: Africa,Crime/Law/Justice
- Reuters ID: LVA001269829032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Guinea's junta leader has pardoned former military leader Moussa Dadis Camara for "health reasons" after a court last year found him guilty of crimes against humanity in a 2009 stadium massacre, according to a decree read on state television late on Friday (March 28).
Camara, who seized power in a 2008 coup, was sentenced on July 31 2024 to 20 years in prison for his role in the massacre of at least 157 people during a pro-democracy rally in a stadium in the capital Conakry.
On September 28, 2009, tens of thousands of people had gathered to press Camara not to stand in a presidential election the following year. Many were shot, stabbed, beaten or crushed in a stampede as security forces fired teargas and charged the stadium.
At least a dozen women were raped by security forces, prosecutors said during the trial.
Camara, 61, was convicted alongside seven other military commanders.
The West African nation's current military government announced on Thursday (March 27) that it would pay the compensation to victims that the court had ordered Camara and the other accused to cover.
That includes at least $2 million to rape victims and $18 million to the families of those killed or missing, according to Reuters calculations.
Junta leader Mamady Doumbouya himself seized power in a 2021 coup.
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