Bissau, Sept. 27, 2024 (Lusa) - Guinea-Bissau's Attorney General, Bacari Biai, announced on Thursday that the Public Prosecutor's Office has referred ‘copies of evidence’ of alleged corruption offences committed by the speaker of parliament, Domingos Simões Pereira, to the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ).
At a press conference, Biai said that he was ‘enlightening Guineans’ about the contours of a case that became known as the ‘bank bailout’, a loan of around 36 billion CFA francs taken out by the government in 2015, when it was led by Simões Pereira.
The loan to two commercial banks in Bissau was taken out to pay off the state's debt to 99 companies and individuals, the Guinean prosecutor said, in what he said was a fraudulent operation.
Bacari Biai said that Domingos Simões Pereira, as prime minister, had instructed the then finance minister, Geraldo Martins, to take out the loan in question.
Also related to the same case, the Public Prosecutor's Office accuses Simões Pereira of committing 10 offences: two of maladministration, two of abuse of power, five of embezzlement and one of violating budget execution rules.
The prosecutor said it was false to consider that the ‘bank bailout’ process had been closed by the courts, when in 2018, Geraldo Martins, at the time the only suspect in the case, was acquitted by the court that tried him.
Bacari Biai said that ‘four autonomous processes’ have emerged from the case, some of which involve the name of Domingos Simões Pereira, Guinea's prime minister, between July 2014 and August 2015.
A source from the Public Prosecutor's Office said that as he is currently the speaker of parliament, the case against Simões Pereira was referred to the Supreme Court of Justice, which is due to try it in plenary session.
‘This case against Domingos Simões Pereira has nothing to do with political persecution. It's a purely technical-legal process. There is plenty of evidence to proceed with charges against Domingos Simões Pereira,’ said the prosecutor.
Bacari Biai said that he is ‘impartial’ and that all his actions were carried out as a legal prosecutor. He invited anyone to become an assistant to investigate the case, if they so wished, in accordance with the country's law.
Domingos Simões Pereira called a meeting of the Standing Committee of Parliament last Friday to discuss the situation of the Supreme Court of Justice, which is without a quorum. This led to the announcement by a leader of the Madem-G15 wing close to the Guinean President of his alleged dismissal and replacement by the body's second vice-president.
The Guinean head of state, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, had warned Simões Pereira that there would be consequences if he kept the STJ issue on the agenda of the meeting.
Today, a group of MPs from the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde (PAIGC), led by Simões Pereira, said they had been prevented from entering the premises of the National People's Assembly, with the police invoking ‘superior orders’ to that effect.
MB/ADB // ADB.
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