Guinea president dismisses interior minister after murders

Reuters
Guinea's President Alpha Conde arrives for a meeting with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh May 25, 2012. REUTERS/Samrang Pring

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's President Alpha Conde on Thursday dismissed the interior minister and a senior official in connection with their handling of two murder cases, a senior government source said. "Mamoudou Cisse, minister of the interior is stripped of his functions for gross misconduct," said a presidential decree read out on state radio. State secretary for religious affairs El Hadj Abdoulaye Diassy was also dismissed, a second decree said. A source close to the presidency said that the dismissals followed the murders of two brothers in the northern town of Touba, a site of pilgrimage for West African Muslims. One was decapitated with a machete and the other stabbed to death during a quarrel over the construction of a mosque. The state prosecutor has since opened an investigation and 13 people have been arrested. (Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Andrew Roche)