Domingos Simoes Pereira, former Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, has been banned from leaving the country due to a judicial review in an investigation that includes an attempted coup in 2021, the Prosecutor General’s Office in Bissau announced Wednesday.
Pereira, a member of parliament and leader of the former ruling PAIGC party, which has dominated political life in Guinea-Bissau since independence in 1974, was President Umaro Sissoco Embalo’s opponent in the January 2020 presidential runoff election, the results of which he is contesting.
He served as head of government from 2014 to 2015 under President José Mario Vaz (2014-2019). “Domingos Simoes Pereira has been under judicial supervision since Tuesday,” said Wednesday the Attorney General of the Republic Bacary Biaye.
The Attorney General’s Office issued a statement Tuesday evening announcing “a measure of coercion” against Mr. Pereira from Tuesday. This “decision prevents him from leaving the country without the authorization of the Public Prosecutor’s Office,” the statement said.
This measure was taken “because of the delay that the ANP (the National People’s Assembly) to respond to the letter” requesting a lifting of his immunity and “given the danger that (his exit from the territory) represents for the success of the investigation.
The judiciary, after opening a judicial investigation against Pereira in early February, referred a request for the lifting of his immunity to National Assembly Speaker Cipriano Cassama on February 18, according to an official document.
Pereira is officially accused, while he was Prime Minister, of allowing a $5 million disbursement to Guinea-Bissau businessmen to pay debts owed to local banks, according to official sources.
He is accused of not having consulted the National Assembly before making the disbursement. He is also cited in an alleged coup attempt against President Embalo on April 12, 2021, according to the official document.