Public statement Posté le 15:38 14-06-2023, modifié le 15:38 14-06-2023 par Tournons la Page
Paris-Geneva, June 14, 2023 - Yesterday's acquittal of NFDC ("National Front for the Defense of the Constitution") and TLP ("Tournons la Page") Guinée members Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo, after nine months of arbitrary detention, is a source of hope for human rights defenders in Guinea. However, this salutary decision should not obscure the reality of civil society, which is operating in an ever more restrictive context, point out the Observatory (FIDH-OMCT), Agir ensemble pour les droits humains (AEDH) and Tournons la Page (TLP), who call on the ruling military junta to guarantee the rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression in the country.
On June 13, 2023, the Tribunal of first instance in Dixinn, relocated to the Conakry Court of Appeal for the occasion, acquitted Oumar Sylla, Alias Foniké Menguè, coordinator of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (NFDC) and deputy coordinator of Tournons La Page (TLP) Guinea, and Ibrahima Diallo, coordinator of TLP-Guinea and head of operations for the NFDC, both charged with "criminal participation in an assembly", "complicity in the destruction of public and private buildings" and "complicity in intentional assault and battery". On the same day, the public prosecutor appealed against the verdict.
This acquittal comes just over a month after the two human rights defenders were released on the evening of May 10, 2023, after more than nine months of arbitrary detention. On July 30, 2022, Mr. Sylla and Mr. Diallo had been brutally arrested following the demonstrations of July 28 and 29, 2022 organized by the NFDC and violently repressed by the authorities, causing several deaths. The two activists were subsequently charged and remanded to the Conakry prison. Mamadou Billo Bah, head of TLP-Guinée's youth wing and of the NFDC's mobilization and branches, was arbitrarily arrested on January 21, 2023 for the same offences as Mr. Sylla and Mr. Diallo, but prosecuted in another case. He was released at the same time as his two colleagues, and is still awaiting trial.
Over the last few months, the proceedings against the three human rights defenders have been marred by numerous irregularities. The three activists were violently arrested by hooded and heavily-armed soldiers and gendarmes, then taken to destinations that initially remained unknown. Mamadou Billo Bah was severely beaten at the time of his arrest. During their detention, the three activists did not have access to adequate health care, leaving them with serious after-effects. Furthermore, the legal time limit for preventive detention in Guinea is four months, renewable once. In the present case, the preventive detention of Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo was not officially renewed at the end of the first four-month period, and in any case exceeded the maximum period of eight months. The activists were subsequently released outside of any official procedure, without any reason being given and without their trial being scheduled. Finally, on June 1, 2023, Ibrahima Diallo was detained at Conakry airport and arbitrarily prevented from leaving Guinean territory, even though no judicial control measures had been imposed on him at the time of his release.
This long-running judicial persecution of Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah comes against a backdrop of widespread harassment of members of the NFDC and Guinean civil society in general. The NFDC is a citizens' movement created in April 2019 to protest against President Alpha Condé's desire to amend the Constitution or adopt a new one in order to run for a third term. Despite the adoption of a new Constitution in March 2020, which led to the President's re-election in October of the same year, NFDC activists continued their fight for democracy. In September 2021, Alpha Condé was overthrown by a coup d'état led by the military junta, which committed the country to a solitary and authoritarian transition process. In the face of the junta's numerous attacks on democracy, such as the suspension of the Constitution replaced by a Transition Charter, and the bloody repression of peaceful demonstrations, the NFDC continues to campaign for a return to constitutional order and a rapid transition to civilian rule in consultation with civil society. Because of their commitment, NFDC members are harshly repressed by the authorities, including arbitrary arrests and constant judicial harassment, and some are forced into exile in order to pursue their legitimate human rights activities.
Moreover, fundamental freedoms are blithely flouted by the ruling military junta. In May 2022, the military junta decreed a ban on all demonstrations in the country, in contradiction with Guinea's international obligations, notably under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Transition Charter issued by the junta. In August 2022, the junta attacked freedom of association, arbitrarily dissolving the NFDC. Since then, the authorities have systematically refused to renew the accreditation of NFDC member associations.
The Observatory, AEDH and TLP welcome the acquittal of Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo, but point out that they should never have been detained in the first place, their detention being arbitrary in that it was only intended to punish them for the legitimate exercise of their human rights activities. The signatory organizations call on the military junta in power in Guinea to drop all charges against them and Mamadou Billo Bah, and to guarantee them and all human rights defenders in the country a favourable environment in which they can carry out their legitimate activities without threat or fear of reprisal.
The Observatory, AEDH and TLP also call on the ruling military junta to guarantee the independence of the judiciary, as well as the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in the country, in accordance with Guinea's international commitments, notably under Articles 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 9, 11 and 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
Signatories:
- FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), as part of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), as part of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- Agir ensemble pour les droits humains (AEDH) (Working together for human rights)
- Tournons La Page (TLP)
