Former Guinean Prime Minister Ibrahima Kassory Fofana has been arrested for alleged corruption and other criminal actions.
Fofana, a close associate of Guinea‘s deposed President Alpha Condé, was arrested by the military junta on suspicion of money laundering, corruption, and misappropriation of public funds on Wednesday.
Former Ministers close to him; Mohamed Diané, Zakaria Koulibaly, and Oyé Guilavogui, as well as Fofana, were questioned at the Directorate of Judicial Investigations before being transferred to the Court for the Repression of Economic and Financial Crimes.
The prosecution is set to begin on April 11 in one of the courtrooms, and it is likely to be a quick and harsh process. In light of the defendants’ supporters mobilising, security forces have ensured the perimeter.
Demonstrators have set fire to tires on the road in support of Fofana, who recently became the leader of Condé’s Guinea People’s Assembly party, which was deposed in September 2021 by a military coup. The political group stated in March that it would take part in a nationwide dialogue process to try to find a way out of the political crisis, a move advocated by junta chief and interim president Mamady Doumbouya.
The rebellion erupted after months of political turmoil in the country as a result of Condé’s decision to amend the Constitution in order to run for a third term and his victory in the 2020 presidential elections, in which the other candidates, including opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, denounced fraud.
Fofana served as Prime Minister of Guinea between May 21, 2018 and September 5, 2021. A macro-economist and specialist in economic policy, he previously held several strategic positions in the Guinean administration, including State minister for investments and public-private partnerships under the presidency of Alpha Condé and Minister of Economy and Finance under the presidency of Lansana Conté, and was candidate for the 2010 presidential elections.
Meanwhile, Burkina Faso’s former President Blaise Compaore was on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the 1987 murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara.