Colonel Claude Pivi, Guinea's most wanted fugitive after his August conviction of crimes against humanity for involvement in a 2009 massacre, has been arrested in Liberia, his lawyer told AFP on Wednesday.
"In view of the information we have received and some information we have had from the country where he was arrested, we can now confirm he is in the hands of the Liberian authorities," Abdourahmane Dabo told AFP.
Little else has emerged over the conditions and date of Pivi's arrest by Liberian police with no formal notice issued by the Liberian or Guinean authorities.
However, Dansa Kourouma, who presides the National Transitional Council in Guinea, the legislative body of the junta in power since 2021, told French broadcaster RFI on Wednesday the colonel had indeed been arrested in Liberia.
"I have not had direct communication with the colonel," Dabo added, asking the authorities to "ensure that his rights are respected", saying he is "sick".
For 10 months after his escape last November from the Conakry central jail, former minister of presidential security Pivi had been nowhere to be seen, leaving a potential threat hanging over survivors and families of the victims of the September 28, 2009 massacre.
"I'm overjoyed. I pray that he will remain in prison forever," Fatoumata Diariou Camara, who was caught up in the violence that day, told AFP.
At least 156 people were killed by gunfire, knives, machetes, or bayonets in the massacre at the Conakry stadium, with hundreds more injured in a crackdown on an opposition rally, according to the report into the incident by a UN-mandated international commission of inquiry.
At least 109 women were raped while abuses carried on for days afterwards against more women who were kidnapped with detainees tortured in what is considered one of the darkest pages in the West African nation's history.
In August, Pivi was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison.
A trial of suspects behind the massacre which opened in 2022 saw former military junta head Moussa Dadis Camara and two other men who escaped from prison along with Pivi present alongside several other former government officials.
On November 4, 2023, Pivi escaped along with three other detainees, including Camara, during a commando operation. His fellow escapees were recaptured the same day but he had remained at large.
Authorities have offered a sizeable reward for his capture.
Camara was in July found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 20 years in prison.