Guinea to prosecute ex PM Ibrahima Fofana over alleged embezzlement

Guinea will prosecute former prime minister Ibrahima Kassory Fofana over the alleged embezzlement of more than $4 million in public funds intended for economic, political and social programmes, the justice ministry announced on Thursday (August 11).

Ibrahima Kassory Fofana is already under investigation for the possible misappropriation of more than 40 million dollars intended for the management of the Covid-19 epidemic.

"I am directing you to initiate legal proceedings against Mr. Ibrahima Kassory Fofana (...) for alleged embezzlement, money laundering, corruption and complicity," Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright wrote in a letter to the attorney general. The charges relate to payments of 41 billion Guinean francs (4.5 million euros) and $400,000 in 2020.

The minister also ordered charges against a former economic and financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Ansoumane Camara, and several officials of the National Agency for Economic and Social Inclusion (Anies), the agency responsible for implementing the anti-poverty program under investigation.

Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, who has been jailed since April, served as Prime Minister under former President Alpha Conde from May 2018 until September 2021, when the government was toppled in a military coup.

On July 15, Alphonse Charles Wright, then attorney general, announced that former Prime Minister Fofana was under investigation for misappropriating $46.2 million intended for the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The military, which took power by force on September 5, 2021, has made the fight against corruption, which is considered endemic in Guinea, one of its major declared battles. Several former officials are being held in this context.