sentenced Oumar Sylla to three years’ honouring its commitments to employ local imprisonment for ‘‘communication and inhabitants. dissemination of false information, threats of On 11 September, all demonstrations were violence and death” after he denounced forbidden by the CNRD until further notice. arbitrary arrests on the radio. INHUMANE DETENTION CONDITIONS Amadou Diouldé Diallo, a reporter for state- owned radio and TV broadcaster Radio Mamadou Oury Barry, who had been in Télévision Guinéenne, spent nearly three pretrial detention in Conakry’s main prison months in pretrial detention on charges of since 5 August 2020 for “assault and insulting former president Alpha Condé. He battery”, died on 16 January. According to was freed on 19 May after a court in Conakry the Ministry of Justice, he died “a natural fined him 5 million Guinean francs (€420) for death linked to a bowel obstruction and “insulting the head of state”. anaemia” in hospital. The public prosecutor EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE AND did not allow the body to be returned to the FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY family until 2 February, after a request was made by a lawyer on 19 January. In the Several people were reportedly killed by weeks before, three other detainees, defence and security forces in at least three including supporters of the opposition party localities during demonstrations, some of the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea, which turned violent, around issues related to died, soon after one of them had been mining exploitation. released and the two others had been On 22 April at least two people were shot hospitalized in very poor health. The dead by defence and security forces and authorities attributed the deaths to natural several wounded in Kouroussa town, Kankan causes without carrying out thorough region, after a mob attacked the town hall investigations. Families of the detainees had and the Prefect’s residence; there had been a not been able to visit them in prison or conflict looming between small-scale gold hospital. miners and a mining company over the DEATH PENALTY exploitation of a gold mining site. In Gaoual town, Boké region, on 22 June, at Although the death penalty was removed least two people were killed and several from the Criminal Code in 2016, several wounded when the army was deployed prisoners were still under sentence of death, during demonstrations and riots against the including some of those sentenced in 2011 alleged involvement of members of the after inter-communal clashes in Galakpaye defence and security forces in the town, N’Zérékoré region. management of small-scale gold mines. IMPUNITY According to witnesses, soldiers intentionally knocked one of the two victims off a bridge. Despite several announcements of In July, in Siguiri region, suspected Donzo investigations into the killings of protesters in hunters shot at gendarmes who had come to 2019 and 2020 during demonstrations enforce a court order about a dispute against the change of Constitution and the between two villages over the operation of a election of former president Alpha Condé for small-scale mine. Thirteen gendarmes were a third term, very little information was made injured, according to the authorities. available. The minister of justice reported in On 17 August, in Foulata town, Kankan June that due to lack of evidence the Court of region, defence and security forces allegedly First Instance of Mamou had acquitted those shot and wounded several people and burnt accused of the killing of a 20-year-old man in down homes and stores, following protests Kégnéko town, Mamou region, on 22 March against a mining company for allegedly not 2020. On 23 October, a delegation from the CNRD met with families of those killed by Amnesty International Report 2021/22 184