About 20 people, including the former chief of the armed forces and his son, have been indicted in the West African nation of Guinea on drug-related charges, a statement read on national TV said.
The people charged also include the former head of the country’s navy as well as 10 foreign nationals, including one Israeli.
State television on Saturday showed several officers, including former army chief General Diarra Camara and former navy head Admiral Aly Daffe, being bundled into vehicles by armed soldiers.
“These officers are accused of having taken part in the drugs trade. It is now up to the courts to decide their fate,” Captain Moussa Tiegboro Camara, secretary of state in charge of fighting drug trafficking and banditry, told the television.
Their trials will begin this week, according to a statement released late on Friday.
The indictment on drug trafficking charges by the administration of coup leader Captain Moussa “Dadis” Camara came after months of investigation by an extrajudicial ministry created after the coup.
Dadis Camara came to power in a December coup, hours after the death of the country’s former strongman Lansana Conte, a deeply corrupt ruler whose own son is believed to have been one of the country’s top drug lords.
Camara won support by promising to crack down on corruption, including the rampant cocaine trade, but the approach of his the National Council for Democracy (CNDD) has been widely criticized as unfair.
Instead of going through the courts, Dadis Camara appointed a fellow army officer to head a new ministry charged with investigating crime.
That officer ordered the arrest of several dozen people — including the son of the former dictator — who were jailed on suspicion of drug trafficking.
One by one, they were then paraded in front of the coup leader, who interrogated them in his salon and broadcast their so-called “confessions” on state television.
Many Guineans were riveted and took satisfaction in seeing formerly powerful members of the previous regime forced to account for their crimes.
But rights groups point out that the arrests were politically selective, targeting mostly the upper echelons of the army under Conte — gray-haired generals and colonels who lost their grip on power.
Critics are quick to list the names of officers serving in CNDD who also are suspected of drug trafficking but that have been untouched by the rash of arrests.
Earlier this month, the country’s judges went on strike to deplore what they called the “parallel justice system” created by Dadis Camara in his fight on drugs.
The international community has been deeply divided by the recent developments in Guinea, with some privately praising the coup leader for cracking down on the booming cocaine trade, while others demanding a return to constitutional rule.
Guinea — like many poor west African countries — has become a key transit point for Latin American cocaine headed to Europe.
The CNDD has promised to hold an election in the top bauxite-exporter by the end of the year but some senior military officers this week said the country would not be ready for polls until next year.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not