Former Guinean dictator Moussa Dadis Camara and several co-defendants were taken to jail on Tuesday, a day before their trial opened in the 2009 stadium massacre, their lawyers said.

The prosecutor had “our six clients taken to the central house (prison) where they will apparently be held until the end of the (trial),” Salifou Beavogui, one of the lawyers, told journalists outside the court.

“Unfortunately, the trial begins with the violation of the defendants’ rights,” he said.

An AFP correspondent saw a minibus – surrounded by several pick-up trucks – speed away from the brand-new court built specifically for the trial.

Captain Camara and 10 other former military and government officials are scheduled to appear in court at 10:00 a.m. (local time and GMT) on Wednesday.

A handful of the accused have been in prison for years. Those who were still free were arrested around noon on Tuesday after being summonsed.

On September 28, 2009 and in the days that followed, security forces loyal to the then-junta leader butchered more than 150 people and raped at least 109 women at a political rally at a stadium in Conakry, according to a report by a UN secretary-general emerges. Mandated international commission.

The real numbers are likely to be higher.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered at the stadium to demonstrate peacefully against a possible election bid by Camara, who came to power in a coup in December 2008 before being sworn in as president.

Numerous testimonies reported how the Red Berets of the Presidential Guard, police officers and militiamen entered the stadium around midday, blocked the exits and opened fire indiscriminately on a previously celebratory crowd.

The killers attacked unarmed civilians with knives, machetes, and bayonets, leaving the stands, corridors, and grass littered with the dead and dying.

They sexually assaulted and then killed many women. Others were trampled to death in a panic.

International investigators determined that the abuse could be classified as a crime against humanity and noted that brutality continued for several days against seized women and male detainees, who were tortured.

On the eve of Wednesday’s trial, Amnesty International released a report calling for better protection for rape victims in Guinea and for the “urgent” passage of a comprehensive gender-based violence law.

Camara, who had been living in exile in Burkina Faso, returned to Conakry on Saturday night to appear in court.

Relatives say he intends to “clear his name.”

The international commission accuses him of “personal criminal liability and managerial responsibility”.

Despite recurring engagements under former President Alpha Conde’s regime, victims and families have awaited trial for 13 years.

Human rights defenders and the International Criminal Court are also pushing for justice.

Delays by those in power and the impunity of security forces, which according to the commission had become an “institution”, raised doubts about the chances of a trial for a long time.

Then in July, the head of the current military junta, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who came to power in a coup in 2021 after 11 years of civilian rule, called for the trial to be held before the next anniversary.

Victims’ groups are hoping the opening won’t be just a show before the trial is adjourned.