In a long-awaited trial, Moussa Dadis Camara, an ex-military chief of Guinea, refuted accusations that he was behind a 2009 stadium massacre while taking the witness stand for the first time.
When more than 150 people lost their lives on September 28, 2009, during a pro-democracy march, Camara was in power in Guinea.
At a stadium in Conakry, tens of thousands of people had assembled to urge him not to run for president the next year.
As security forces fired tear gas and charged the stadium, numerous people were shot, stabbed, assaulted, or crushed in a stampede. Human rights organisations and survivors claim that an undetermined number of women were also raped.
Camara is one of 11 men on trial for allegedly planning the massacre. He is accused of murder, rape, torture, and assault.
Aboubacar Sidiki Diakite, Camara’s former aide-de-camp and another defendant, has refuted the allegations and testified in court in October that Camara orchestrated and directed the violent suppression of protesters.
Camara has pled not guilty to all charges and has in the past ascribed the bloodshed to rogue soldiers.
“The events of September 28 were a cleverly orchestrated plot to remove me (from power),” he said in a rambling statement in which he accused former allies of plotting against him.
He made no specific mention of how things happened. After the overthrow of previous president Alpha Conde in a coup last year, Guinea is now governed by a new military junta.