Eleven handed life sentences over Guinea Ebola worker murders

REUTERS                                                                                                            April 22, 2015

CONAKRY (Reuters) - A court in Guinea has sentenced 11 people to life in prison for murdering a team educating locals about the risks of Ebola in a remote part of the West African country last year, a state prosecutor said on Wednesday.

The broken windshield of an Ebola emergency team vehicle is seen after it had been pelted with stones in Lola

February 9, 2015. REUTERS/Misha Hussain

The bodies of eight people were discovered in September in Womey, a village near the city of Nzerekore around 1,000 km (620 miles) southeast of the capital Conakry.

Some had been hacked to death with machetes or had their throats slit before their bodies were thrown into latrines, witnesses at the trial in Nzerekore said.

"There were 26 defendants. Among them, a group consisting of 11 was sentenced to life in prison," said prosecutor William Fernandez, who had requested the death penalty for charges including murder and conspiracy.

The other 15 defendants were found innocent and released.

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