Guinea's President Mamady Doumbouya said on Saturday that he did not extend presidential pardons to the country's former prime minister and parliamentary speaker serving prison terms for embezzlement of state funds. Instead, the president said he allowed the former government officials to travel abroad on medical grounds.
"A strong state is not a state without a heart. The health of these two men has been brought to my attention and documented. Faced with the suffering of a human being, I have felt that the republic could not turn a blind eye. I have therefore authorised, on an exceptional basis and for purely health reasons, their evacuation to appropriate healthcare facilities. This decision is neither an amnesty, nor a pardon, nor an arrangement. It is an act of humanity. I want a Guinea that judges without hatred and punishes without harshness," President Doumbouya said in a statement on Facebook.
Former Prime Minister Ibrahima Kassory Fofana was flown to Paris, France for medical treatment on September 18, while ex-parliamentary speaker Amadou Damaro Camara was granted permission to travel to Atlanta, the United States of America for medical care. Both Fofana and Camara served during the administration of President Alpha Conde, who was removed from office in a military coup in September 2021 after nearly 11 years in power.
Doumbouya, a then-colonel, led Conde's ouster, saying at the time that the ex-leader's removal was necessary because of Guinea's "poverty, corruption, misrule, and a lack of development."
Fofana's crime
Both Fofana and Camara were arrested and prosecuted after Doumbouya came to power.
After a lengthy legal trial, a Guinean special court sentenced former Prime Minister Fofana to five years in prison in February 2025 for corruption and embezzlement of state funds.
Fofana was also fined 2 billion Guinean francs ($230,000 at the time) during his sentencing in Guinea's capital, Conakry.
The ex-premier, 72, was convicted of embezzling up to 15 billion Guinean francs ($1.7 million then) in public funds from some of the past government's social welfare programmes, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2026, a Guinean court reduced Fofana's prison term to three years and nine months.
Camara's crime
As for former parliamentary speaker Amadou Damaro Camara, he was serving a nearly four-year prison term after a Guinean court first sentenced him for embezzlement and illicit enrichment in December 2024.
Camara, who had been in custody since April 2022, had also been charged with money laundering and corruption.
According to authorities, Camara, 74, embezzled 15 billion Guinean francs intended for the development of Guinean parliament's new headquarters.
An economic crimes court found him guilty and sentenced him to four years in prison. The former speaker was also ordered to pay a fine of 10 million Guinean francs ($1,160 then). An appeals court, however, reduced his prison term to three years and six months in May 2025.
