A Guinean appeals court on Wednesday upheld a two-year jail term for a key opposition figure convicted of "offending and insulting" junta leader General Mamadi Doumbouya, his defence team told AFP.

The court confirmed the two-year sentence given to Aliou Bah, leader of the Liberal Democratic Movement (Model), who had been in custody since December and was initially sentenced last January, lawyer Hady Galissa said.

The prosecution had called for a five-year jail term for Bah, whose appeal began in March and who pleaded not guilty.

Bah stood accused of having, during rallies, "called on (Guinean) religious leaders to break their silence" over the political situation in Guinea and of having described the CNRD, the junta's governing body, as "incompetent."

'Stifling criticism'

AFP journalists were prevented from entering the courtroom by police.

One of Bah's lawyers called the decision "unjust" while Alseny Sall, head of the Guinean Organisation for the Defence of Human Rights (OGDH), told AFP the ruling was a "triumph of abritrariness over freedom."

Fabien Offner, of Amnesty International, said the military government was "clearly ready to do anything to stifle criticism, especially to those that remind it of its commitments."

Ibrahima Diallo, another opposition figure who has been in exile in Europe for a year, said the sentence showed that political and civil actors were right to go abroad "to avoid being victims of the junta's justice."

Climate of tension

Bah's sentence on appeal comes in a climate of tension marked by the disappearance of several regime opponents.

Doumbouya seized power in September 2021, ousting civilian President Alpha Conde, who had been in office for more than a decade.