Guinea sentences 11 to life in prison for killing anti-Ebola officials

A court in Guinea on Tuesday sentenced 11 men to life imprisonment for killing eight members of an anti-Ebola team in the southeastern village of Womey last September, a judicial source said.

The 11 were also fined 137,000 U.S. dollars which will be used as compensation to the families of the victims. Fifteen other accused persons were acquitted by court for lack of sufficient evidence.

Forty-two other people cited in this criminal case had not yet been found, the source said.

In mid-September last year, eight government and health personnel who had come to warn the village about dangers of the Ebola disease were killed by individuals who opposed their campaign.

Guinea is one of the West African countries that was hit hard by Ebola virus with 3,128 confirmed cases, out of which 1,939 have died. Endi