(Bloomberg) -- Guinea has sentenced Moussa Dadis Camara, the military leader who ruled the bauxite-rich nation from 2008 to 2009, to 20 years in prison for his role in a mass killing while he was in power.
Camara “completely failed in his duty to stop the massacre,” Judge Ibrahima Sory II Tounkara said in the judgment at a criminal court in Conakry, the the capital on Wednesday. “The court reclassifies the facts initially classified as assassination, murder, rape and kidnapping as crimes against humanity,” he said.
More than 150 people died in September 2009 when gunmen opened fire on a stadium demonstration in Conakry called to protest Camara’s plan to run for the presidency. In addition, hundreds were injured and more than 100 women were raped, according to an international investigation commissioned by the United Nations.
The verdict comes after almost two years of trial.
Camara denied wrong doing, putting the blame on the soldiers who committed the atrocity.
“We are going to appeal the decision,” Pepe Antoine Lama, lawyer for Camara, said by telephone. “The verdict of the court is a scandalous decision rendered in violation of the right of defense.”
The former leader’s aide-de-camp Aboubacar Diakite was sentenced to 10 years in prison, Tounkara said. The parties have 15 days to appeal the decision, he said.
Camara, an army captain, seized power in a December 2008 coup following the death of General Lansana Conte who led for 24 years.
In addition to being a major exporter of bauxite, a reddish ore used to produce aluminum, Guinea also has the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposit.
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