In Guinea, eight months after the start of a historic trial, some lawyers - for both the defence and the victims - have never been paid. On 29 May, they went on strike. They are demanding legal aid, which the government refuses to pay. According to the authorities, it is the very funding of the trial for the 2009 massacre in Conakry's stadium that is in fact about to run out.
There are still dozens of victims to be heard, the appearance of witnesses has not yet taken place, nor have the closing arguments. It is difficult to foresee the end of the mass trial that opened in Conakry on 28 September 2022. Eleven defendants are in the dock, suspected of having played a role in the repression of an opposition rally that left more than 150 dead in 2009. As the eighth month of the trial draws to a close, the lawyers have decided to boycott the hearings from Monday 29 May.
"A trial of this nature is always subsidised by the State," he says, citing the trial of Hissène Habré in Senegal in 2015 as an example."When I criticised the unpreparedness [of the trial in Conakry], I was told that everything was ready. But look at our working conditions, we're like schoolchildren. We can't even put in a computer and our things are on the floor.
A median solution could be proposed."Following the actions they [the lawyers] have taken to [our] department, it is currently looking into the possibility of granting them bonuses," explains Traoré. But while this not yet been approved by the ministry, it has already been rejected by the lawyers."We are not people to be given bonuses, but to be respected and paid", says Yomba.
Yomba can't be harsh enough towards the Minister of Justice, Alphonse Charles Wright, whom he describes as a victim of"power fatigue"."He is someone we don't even recognise any more. It's help [that we're asking for], not begging for the benefit of our clients. That's the law."
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