Guinea pardons ex-military ruler jailed over stadium massacre

Former Guinean President Moussa Dadis Camara was pardoned Friday by current President Gen. Mamadi Doumbouya, according to a presidential decree.

The decree read on national television by presidential spokesman Gen. Amara Camara, cited "health reasons" for the decision.

"At the proposal of the Keeper of the Seals, a presidential pardon is granted to Mr. Moussa Dadis Camara for health reasons," said Camara.

Camara added that the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Yaya Kairaba Kaba, is responsible for implementing the measure.

Stadium massacre

Moussa Dadis Camara, who took power in a coup in 2008, was found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Dixinn Criminal Court in 2024, for his role in the September 28, 2009, massacre of 157 victims and the rape of 100 women.

He fled into exile after he survived an assassination attempt several months after the massacre but returned to Guinea more than a decade later.

He had been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In the 2009 incident, tens of thousands of people had gathered at a stadium in Conakry to press Camara not to stand in a presidential election the following year. Many were shot, stabbed, beaten or crushed in a stampede as security forces fired teargas and charged the stadium.

The presidential pardon comes on the heels of an announcement that the government would pay compensation to the victims of the massacre.