Guinea: Minister of Justice sacked and replaced by ruling junta

A poster of the leader of the putschists and current Guinean head of state, Lieutenant-Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, in Conakry, September 11, 2021. (illustrative image) © AFP - JOHN WESSELS

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1 min

This Monday, January 3, Moriba Alain Koné took office as Minister of Justice and Human Rights.

This handover comes three days after a dysfunction at the top revealed in broad daylight: Fatoumata Yarie Soumah, the former Keeper of the Seals, was sacked by the junta this weekend.

At issue: a disagreement with officials of the presidency on the functioning of his department.  

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It all started with a meeting called by the presidency with the magistrates to explain to them the “ 

 ”.

A meeting convened on January 2, without the approval of the Minister of Justice.

Fatoumata Yarie Soumah expressed her disagreement in a letter addressed to the secretary general of the presidency, Colonel Amara Camara: for her, the procedures are not respected by the junta.

The penal policy of the transition " 

she writes,

 ", underlines Fatoumata Yarie Soumah, who requests the cancellation of this hearing.

In response, the minister was sacked over the weekend.

Some sources also evoke an accumulation of frustrations experienced by this notary: before this episode, the minister had seen her list of proposals for the appointment of magistrates partially modified, without being consulted beforehand ...

Another subject of disagreement: the junta's decision to rename Conakry Airport Ahmed Sekou Touré, named after the former president, a character too divisive in the eyes of the former minister.  

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