A criminal court in Kankan, Guinea, has sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment for killing three journalists and five others.The journalists, Facely Camara, Molou Chérif and Sidiki Sidibé, and the five others –who included local authorities, two medical doctors and a religious leader– were killed on September 16, 2014, by some inhabitants of the village of Womey, who misunderstood a sensitisation exercise on Ebola.
The ruling, which was delivered on April 21, 2015, also asked the convicts to pay 1.5 billion Guinean francs in damages and interest.
The trial began in the court of first instance at N’Zérékoré on March 23, 2015, with 25 accused persons appearing. According to MFWA’s correspondent Guinea, 83 persons were charged but only 25 of were present for the hearing, adding that an arrest warrant had been issued against the 58 who were on the run. The accused were charged with “murder, conspiracy to commit murder, criminal association, looting, willfully causing harm and stealing.”
Out of the 25 persons, 11 were sentenced while the rest were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The MFWA welcomes the convictions of the killers of the doctors and journalists who were only rendering voluntary service to humanity. We also commend the authorities in Guinea for their strong commitment to ensuring justice for the victims.
