Guinea: Drop The Charges Against Jailed Activists
The FNDC Movement (National Front for the Defence of the Constitution) is a coalition of civil society organizations and political parties that initiated a series of demonstrations in October 2019 in Guinea to protest against the amendment or adoption of a new Constitution. Since then, the FNDC has been at the heart of most of the demonstrations to denounce several human rights violations by former and current regime. On 8 August 2022, the Guinean transitional authorities decided to dissolve the FNDC, which they described as a “de facto movement” and accused it of having “always been known for violence against people, the degradation and destruction of public and private property, and acts of incitement to hatred.”
In May 2022, the Guinean authorities banned protests until the start of the electoral cycle.
This is the not the first time Oumar Sylla (alias Foniké Menguè) has been targeted by the authorities in connection to his peaceful activism. In September 2020, he was arrested while mobilizing against President Alpha Condé's candidacy for the October 2020 presidential election. Following the presidential election, protests - some of which were violent - erupted to contest the results. Security forces responded to the protests by using excessive force when carrying out operations in some neighbourhoods which resulted in deaths. According to Amnesty International, at least 16 people were shot dead between 18 and 24 October 2020. In June 2021, he was sentenced to three years in prison for “communication and dissemination of false information, violence and threat of death”. In September 2021 he was freed after the newly appointed Attorney General ordered his release.
On 5 July 2022, he was arrested while holding a press conference. Two other activists (Billo Bah of TLP-Guinée and Djanii Alpha of FNDC) were forcibly taken with Oumar Sylla to the Directorate of the Judicial Police. They were charged with contempt of court and public insults. On 8 July 2022, the Tribunal of Dixinn in Conakry ordered their release. Only a few weeks later, Oumar Sylla was rearrested for the charges he currently faces.
On 7 October 2022, Saïkou Yaya Barry was evacuated and stayed at Sino-Guinean hospital but his health condition required adequate care in a better equipped neurosurgery centre; he suffers from headaches, visual blurring, and vomiting and several other pathologies according to his lawyer. So on 12 October 2022, he was conditionally released and allowed to travel to Tunis for treatment. According to Saïkou Yaya Barry’s lawyer, after his recovery, he must report to the registry of the investigating office every Monday as a condition of his release.
On 7 November 2022, the judge ruled that Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo must remain in custody until they appear in court. On 8 November their lawyer wrote a letter to the public prosecutor in Dixinn calling for the opening of their trial.