Amnesty calls for release of opposition leader

Amnesty International asked the Guinean government on Tuesday to release "immediately and unconditionally" Alpha Conde, the jailed opposition leader charged with trying to leave the country illegally and seeking to recruit troops to destabilise Guinea. "The motives for Alpha Conde's arrest were political and the legal proceedings continue to be severely flawed," Amnesty International said. Conde placed third in the presidential elections of 14 December 1998, won by Lansana Conte. He was arrested one day after the polls in the village of Pine near Guinea's border with Cote d'Ivoire. The government has denied his lawyers access to files on his case, AI said, and failed to begin his trial as expected in September. Conde has been denied bail. His wife and other members of the family have not been allowed to visit him. Amnesty said that at least 60 members of Conde's Rassemblement du peuple de Guinee (RPG) were arrested after the elections and imprisoned for four to five years. "Most stated they had been tortured in detention," Amnesty said. In 1998, the president of the national assembly, El Hadj Biro Diallo, condemned the use of torture to extract confessions from prisoners. Diallo also asked President Lansana Conte to prevent such abuse, AI said.