CONAKRY, Guinea — Gunmen stormed the primary jail in Guinea’s capital early Saturday and freed former dictator Moussa “Dadis” Camara and several other others, authorities mentioned. A lawyer for the ex-strongman, although, later mentioned he had been kidnapped.
In a press release, Prosecutor Yamoussa Conte mentioned he has ordered authorities to analyze fees of escaping jail and weapons possession towards Camara and three different people.
Nevertheless, an lawyer for Camara mentioned late Saturday afternoon that her shopper was again on the central jail, the place he was being questioned.
“My shopper has not escaped; he has been kidnapped,” Jacomey Haba instructed The Related Press.
Among the many others who escaped have been Claude Pivi and Blaise Goumou, who together with Camara had been detained on fees in reference to a 2009 stadium bloodbath that left 157 folks {dead}.
“We are going to discover them. And people accountable can be held accountable,” Justice Minister Charles Alphonse Wright, instructed native Radio Fim FM a number of hours after heavy gunfire erupted within the Kaloum district of the capital, Conakry.
A fourth prisoner, Moussa Thiegboro Camara, already has been recaptured, Wright added.
Camara got here to energy in a 2008 coup d’etat following the demise of longtime dictator Lansana Conte. Camara had lived for years in exile after surviving an assassination try by one in all his bodyguards earlier than returning dwelling to Guinea in late 2021.
Greater than a dozen suspects have been charged in reference to the 2009 bloodbath, when Guinean safety forces fired upon peaceable demonstrators protesting towards his intention to run for president after seizing energy.
For years, Guinea’s authorities had sought to stop Camara’s homecoming from exile in Burkina Faso, fearing it may stoke political instability. Nevertheless, one other coup in September 2021 put a army junta in energy in Guinea that was extra amenable to Camara’s return.
Camara testified in courtroom final 12 months that he was sleeping in the course of the early hours of the assault, then awoken at 11 a.m. when he was instructed that demonstrators had been killed.
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Related Press author Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.