Activist still held despite release orders
On 25 March, a suspected government intelligence agent, claiming to be a journalist, was identified during a FNDC press conference at PADES (Parti des Démocrates pour l'Espoir in French) party headquarters in Conakry’s Ratoma district by FNDC members. FNDC members, including Saïkou Yaya Diallo, secured the suspected government intelligence agent in an office and asked her why she was there and who had sent her. Saïkou Yaya Diallo called a bailiff to establish the presence of the intelligence agent. FNDC members said that she would be released after the press conference to avoid the crowd outside, fearing that she would be lynched by opposition activists in retaliation to the killing of 12 people by security forces following controversial elections in the week before. The police subsequently raided the headquarters of the PADES and arrested 11 individuals including Aicha Barry, spokesperson for the women’s branch of the FNDC. She was charged with “sequestration, violence and assault”. She was released after eight days in detention at Judicial Police Directorate under judicial supervision. According to the Director General of the Police Department who was interviewed by online news website mediaguinée.com, the suspected government intelligence agent is neither a police nor intelligence agent but an administrative officer working at the Ministry of Security.
The National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) is a coalition of non-governmental groups and opposition parties which boycotted the referendum on March 2020. Since October 2019, FNDC has been organizing protests against the government’s planned constitutional change. The new constitution reset presidential term limits, allowing President Alpha Condé to be elected for a third term. On the day of his arrest, Saïkou Yaya Diallo was planning to participate in a radio show regarding the complaint filed by the FNDC against President Alpha Condé.
Amnesty International documented serious human rights violations committed by the defence and security forces in several cities across the country. Since the beginning of 2020, several people have been victims of unlawful killings and arbitrary arrests. Security forces often use excessive force against protesters and bystanders. Leaders of pro-democracy movements and scores of protestors have been also been arbitrarily arrested, convicted and sentenced since 2019. Amnesty International campaigned on the case of Oumar Sylla (alias Foniké Mengué), another FNDC member and pro-democracy activist, who was kept in arbitrary detention for almost four months for the sole purpose of obstructing the work of the FNDC against the ruling party’s nomination of President Alpha Condé to run for a third term. On 27 August, the court dismissed all the charges against him and he was released.