By Alhassan Sillah
The leader and other members of the FNDC group in Guinea protesting against the apparent attempt by President Alpha Conde to run for a third term of office have been granted bail by an appeals court in Conakry.
Abdoulrahmane Sano and four others who are serving one year and six months jail term respectively were granted provisional bail yesterday when they made their first appearance appealing against their original senteces last month.
They had been charged with intention to cause public disorder and insurrection following their call for demonstrations against an apparent proposed constitutional change by the president.
Defense lawyers pleaded with presiding judge Mangadouba Sow to grant provisional bail to their clients, insisting that their clients had been arbitrarily detained.
Surprisingly, even the state prosecutor told the court that he found "no inconvenience" in granting bail to these men he described as "family heads".
The five were arrested on 12 October as they were in a meeting, and were sentenced in a high court on October 22nd.
justice Sani was given one year jail term while each of his four lieutenants got six months each.
They will appear in court again on 5th December when the appeals hearing will continue.
Despite the jailing of these leaders, the FNDC supporters and their political allies have continued with anti-third term protests across the country.
They say 22 of their supporters, mainly youths, were shot dead by the security forces during the recent protests.
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