Madar (Conakry) - The trial chamber of Guinea's Court for the Repression of Economic and Financial Crimes (CRIEF) on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, sentenced former Constitutional Court president Mohamed Lamine Bangoura to seven years in prison and a fine of 2 billion Guinean francs, Guineenews and Africanews reported.
He was convicted of embezzlement of public funds, corruption, illicit enrichment and money laundering in a case linked to the management of funds allocated to the Constitutional Court while he headed it, and acquitted of forgery and use of forged documents. The court also barred him from public office for five years and ordered the confiscation of several of his properties in Guinea and a building in Dakar, Senegal.
His co-defendants Amadou Diallo and Sidiki Sylla, tried in absentia, were each sentenced to ten years and fined 5 billion Guinean francs, with arrest warrants issued. The convicted defendants were jointly ordered to pay 41 billion Guinean francs in damages to the state, Guineenews said. Prosecutors had sought ten years and a 50 billion franc fine for Bangoura.
Bangoura, detained since December 2022, has contested the charges and his defence sought an acquittal. He is among some 180 senior officials and former ministers of ex-president Alpha Conde's administration targeted by the court, which the military set up after the 2021 coup, Africanews reported.
Mamady Doumbouya, in power since that coup, was elected president last year; the opposition accuses the authorities of suppressing freedoms and weaponising the judiciary, according to the same source.
