Guinea’s military authorities have ordered the opening of judicial investigations against former President Alpha Condé, ousted in the September 2021 coup d’état, and other senior members of his government for alleged corruption.
The Guinean Minister of Justice, Charles Wright, has detailed that the investigations affect a total of 187 former high-ranking Guinean officials, including Condé and several of his ministers, advisors, directors of public companies and deputies, according to the Guinean news portal Guinée Matin.
He detailed that these persons are suspected of acts of corruption, illicit enrichment, money laundering, falsification of documents and embezzlement, before defending that the investigations are part of «his policy of moralization of public life».
Wright stressed in a statement that the authorities «have set as their objective the fight against economic and financial crimes» and emphasized that the process «is framed within the legal rules, mainly the respect for the presumption of innocence».
«It is imperative to open judicial investigations to clarify the origin of funds in different accounts», said the Guinean Minister of Justice, who has also published the list of persons to be investigated, including the former Prime Minister Ibrahima Kassory Fofana and the former Minister of Defense Mohamed Diané.
The assassination, led by Mamady Doumbouya, followed months of political crisis in the country due to Condé’s decision to modify the Constitution to run for a third term and his victory in the 2020 presidential elections, in which the other candidates denounced fraud.
Condé, 84, was forced to return in early April to Conakry after undergoing medical treatment for three months in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after receiving permission from the junta after initially receiving permission from the coup leaders to stay there for only one month.
