In Guinea, concern is mounting over the fate of former magistrate Algassimou Diallo after he was transferred overnight to a distant prison, with neither his family nor his lawyers notified beforehand.
It all happened during the night of Friday 4 into Saturday 5 September 2026. Around two in the morning, Algassimou Diallo, the former deputy public prosecutor at the Supreme Court, was pulled out of Coyah detention centre on the outskirts of Conakry, where he had been held since late August, and taken to Macenta prison, more than 700 kilometres from the capital. His relatives, arriving to visit him the next morning, found nothing but an empty cell. No one had warned them. The former magistrate was allowed to take neither his medication, nor the notebook holding his lawyers’ phone numbers, nor his own phone, leaving him completely cut off from the outside world.
It took until Sunday 6 September for the news to be confirmed, first through a post on the Justice Ministry’s Facebook page, then in an official statement from the National Directorate of Prison Administration and Rehabilitation. The statement, signed by its director Mamadou Gando Bah, attributed the move to « the administrative management of prison facilities, » without offering further explanation for such a sudden and remote transfer.
Diallo’s team of lawyers has made no secret of its alarm, saying it fears « for his life and his safety. » His counsel is demanding immediate proof that he is actually being held in Macenta, in the form of an extract from the prison’s official register, and is calling for his family and lawyers to be allowed to visit him without delay to check on his condition. They are also asking that the legal basis for the transfer be disclosed to the defence, and that their client be brought back to Conakry to appear before the Supreme Court’s combined chambers, at a hearing scheduled for this Tuesday, 8 September.
What has deepened the unease is the silence surrounding the former magistrate over the past several days. No one has seen or heard from him since his 4 September hearing, at which he appeared to be in good health. Nothing so far confirms his current condition in Macenta, a gap his lawyers consider all the more troubling given that, in their view, nothing justified the urgency or secrecy of such an operation.
The case unfolds against an already tense backdrop. A key judicial figure in the trial over the 28 September 2009 massacre, where he led the prosecution, Algassimou Diallo was struck off the register of magistrates on 20 August by the Superior Council of the Judiciary, before being charged and placed in pretrial detention on 27 August. Authorities have accused him of incitement to discrimination, hatred and violence, as well as alleged involvement in a criminal conspiracy. Behind the case lies an audio recording in which he is said to have exchanged messages critical of the government with exiled opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, a recording whose authenticity has yet to be established.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court hearing will be closely watched. It could determine not only the direction this sensitive judicial case takes, but also whether Algassimou Diallo is brought back to Conakry, or whether his removal to Macenta drags on, something his defence team fears would place him beyond the reach of any judicial oversight.