Ex-Guinea military leader thwarted in attempt to return home

Camara is a former army captain who seized power in a 2008 coup after the death of longtime dictator Lansane Conte, a move that was initially welcomed but quickly turned sour as he oversaw a bloody crackdown on his opponents.  Camara was thwarted on Wednesday in an attempt to return to his home country from exile in Burkina Faso when the commercial flight he was travelling on was turned back, his lawyer said.

Camara has said he wants to stand for the presidency in elections in the West African state set for October 11 and his lawyer Jean-Baptiste Haba linked the aborted attempt to return to a bid to prevent him from standing.

Camara ruled the country for almost a year after seizing power in a coup in 2008 and remains popular in the country’s southeast, though his reputation was tarnished by a massacre of protesters in 2009, for which he was indicted in July.  Camara and three aides took off on Wednesday aboard an Air Burkina flight from Ouagadougou bound for the Guinean capital, Conakry, via Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Haba said.