Human rights defenders Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah released and freed of all charges
On 10 May 2023, human rights defenders Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah were released and freed on all charges. They were arbitrarily arrested without a trial, never receiving a hearing. Originally, the authorities wanted to make their release conditional upon the human rights defenders’ commitment to cease their activism. However, the three leaders and human rights defenders refused the terms of this offer.
Oumar Sylla, alias Foniké Menguè is a human rights defender and member of Front National pour la Défense de la Constitution (National Front for the Defence of the Constitution-FNDC), a citizen movement that has initiated a series of demonstrations since October 2019 in Guinea to protest against the amendment or adoption of a new constitution allowing President Alpha Condé to run for a third presidential term. Oumar Sylla is also the deputy coordinator of Tournons La Page Guinea (Let's turn the page-TLP), a movement promoting democratic processes and citizen participation. The TLP organisation is active in 10 African countries and advocates for freedom of expression and assembly in efforts to engage all levels of civil society in the democratic process. It mainly conducts its advocacy through demonstrations, campaigns and public debates.
On 10 May 2023, human rights defenders Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah were released and freed on all charges. They were arbitrarily arrested without a trial, never receiving a hearing. Originally, the authorities wanted to make their release conditional upon the human rights defenders’ commitment to cease their activism. However, the three leaders and human rights defenders refused the terms of this offer.
Mamadou Billo Bah, Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo are three human rights defenders that are members of the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution-FNDC, a citizen-led movement that has initiated a series of demonstrations since 2018 in order to uphold the Constitution of Guinea and all the rights and freedoms enacted within it. Oumar Sylla is also the deputy coordinator of Tournons La Page Guinea (Let's turn the page - TLP) of which Ibrahima Diallo is also a member. This is a movement promoting democratic processes and citizen participation. The TLP organisation is active in 10 African countries and advocates for freedom of expression and assembly in efforts to engage all levels of civil society in the democratic process. It mainly conducts its advocacy through demonstrations, campaigns and public debates.
On 10 May 2023, human rights defenders Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo et Mamadou Billo Bah were released and freed on all charged. They were arbitrarily arrested without a trial, never receiving a hearing. Throughout the course of their arbitrary detention, all motions which were submitted on a regular basis by their defence team were consistently declined, with no justification for this refusal.
On 21 January 2023, during the night, Mamadou Billo Bah was arbitrarily arrested by a group of heavily armed security force personnel at his house. He was also detained incommunicado for two days before his whereabouts was made known.
Following this, Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo were arbitrarily arrested on 30 July 2022 at their respective homes and were subsequently detained at the civil prison of Conakry. Their arrest follows a ban on all demonstrations on public highways during the election campaign period which was imposed by the transitional military authorities on 13 May 2022. The FNDC movement denounced the leadership and ruling of the military transition and called for a peaceful human rights demonstration on 28 July 2022, demanding a more inclusive dialogue between civil society and the government.
Following their release, the three human rights defenders were prevented by the military authorities of the transitional govenment from leaving the territory. Indeed, Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo were prevented from leaving the territory in June 2023 following their release; while Mamadou Billo Bah was refused the authorization to leave the territory on 3 July 2023 and his passport was confiscated until then.
While Front Line Defenders welcomes the release of the three human rights defenders, namely Mamadou Billo Bah, Oumar Sylla and Ibrahima Diallo, it believes that the charges against them were politically motivated in an attempt to intimidate them and that the arbitrary detention of the human rights defenders was solely motivated by their legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights.
Front Line Defenders reminds the relevant authorities that everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, which are essential components of democracy. As such, in all circumstances, all human rights defenders in Guinea should be able to carry out their peaceful human rights work without fear of reprisal.
