COLONEL Mamady Doumbouya, Guinea’s strongman, has pardoned two army soldiers who were imprisoned in 2013 for attacking the home of ex-president Alpha Conde, who was deposed in a coup last year.
In July 2011, gunmen attacked Conde’s home in the outskirts of Conakry, the capital of the West African country.
Following Conde’s ascension to government in December 2010, a wave of troops suspected of being close to General Sekouba Konate were arrested.
Before organizing the 2010 election that Conde won, Konate ran a transition government for a short time.
Commander Alpha Oumar Diallo and Jean Guilavogui, two army commanders, were arrested and sentenced to life in prison in 2013 for their alleged role in the attack on Conde’s home.
The sentence was later overturned by Guinea’s Supreme Court, but the two were never released.
Doumbouya had pardoned the two, according to a decree carried out on state television on yesterday evening.
Doumbouya, a former special forces commander, deposed Conde in a putsch last September, following months of simmering discontent with the ex-president’s rule.
The 83 year old Conde, however traveled to the United Arab Emirates for medical treatment earlier this month.
