A Guinean court on Tuesday handed an opposition figure two years in prison for “insulting and defaming” the head of the ruling junta, prompting condemnation from the opposition and Amnesty International.
The sentencing of Aliou Bah, who heads the Liberal Democratic Movement (MoDel), is the latest in a crackdown on freedoms under the junta of General Mamady Doumbouya, who overthrew the civilian president Alpha Conde in a 2021 coup.
Since then, a number of opposition figures have been arrested, brought before the courts or forced into exile.
Bah was accused of having “called on (Guinean) religious leaders to break their silence” on the situation in the country during meetings, and of describing the junta’s ruling National Committee of Reconciliation and Development (CNRD) as “incompetent”, according to his defence.
He was arrested in late December as he travelled to neighbouring Sierra Leone and was later detained for “insulting and defaming” Doumbouya.
The court in Kaloum, the administrative and business district of the capital Conakry, handed Bah two years in prison on Tuesday, according to an AFP journalist.
During the trial, Bah’s lawyers condemned “false allegations” and denounced “a trial of freedom of opinion”.
Rights group Amnesty International said the sentencing was “contrary to the principles of international law on freedom of expression” and called for Bah to be released immediately in a post on X.
Opposition figure and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo denounced a “judicial farce”.
“This absurd sentence, worthy of the most liberticidal regimes, could only be interpreted as an open declaration of war against freedom of speech and an orchestrated intimidation attempt to silence any opposition,” he wrote on Facebook.
The opposition alliance Living Forces of Guinea (FVG) condemned “an arbitrary sentence, an eloquent illustration of the military junta’s betrayal of its commitment to make law and justice the compass of its governance”.
Guinea’s opposition has criticised the junta’s increasingly authoritarian exercise of power.
Two civil society leaders have been missing since they were arrested in July, while an ex-army chief of staff, the former number two of the junta and a doctor have died in unclear circumstances in recent months.
A journalist from the Lerevelateur224 website was arrested in December by men in uniform in the suburbs of Conakry, and his whereabouts are unknown, his lawyers and a press union said.
Doumbouya said in a New Year’s speech that 2025 will be “a crucial electoral year to complete the return to constitutional order”, but gave no details.
Under international pressure, the junta initially pledged to hold a constitutional referendum and hand power to elected civilians by the end of 2024 — but neither has happened.
The United States said in a statement published Monday that it was “concerned” the deadline had not been met and urged “the transition government to announce and enact clear timelines and concrete steps for the constitutional referendum and democratic elections”.
An anti-junta protest planned by Guinea’s opposition but banned by the military-led authorities disrupted trade and transport in Conakry on Monday.
