Ahmadou Sadio Diallo (Republic of Guinea v. Democratic Republic of the Congo) - The Court to deliver its Judgment on Tuesday 30 November 2010 at 10 a.m.

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague, Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)70 302 2323 Fax: +31 (0)70 364 9928
Website: www.icj-cij.org

Press Release
Unofficial

No. 2010/37
18 November 2010

Ahmadou Sadio Diallo
(Republic of Guinea v. Democratic Republic of the Congo)

The Court to deliver its Judgment on Tuesday 30 November 2010 at 10 a.m.

THE HAGUE, 18 November 2010. On Tuesday 30 November 2010, the International Court
of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will deliver its Judgment in the
case concerning Ahmadou Sadio Diallo (Republic of Guinea v. Democratic Republic of the

Congo).

A public sitting will take place at 10 a.m. at the Peace Palace in The Hague, during which the
President of the Court, Judge Hisashi Owada, will read the Court’s Judgment.

History of the proceedings

On 28December1998, Guinea instituted proceed ings against the Democratic Republic of
the Congo by filing an “Application for purposes of diplomatic protection”, in which it requested
the Court to find that “the Democratic Republic of the Congo is guilty of serious breaches of
international law” allegedly “committed upon the person of a Guinean national”,

Ahmadou Sadio Diallo.

According to Guinea, Mr. Ahmadou Sadio Diallo, a businessman who had spent 32 years in
the DRC, was “unjustly imprisoned by the authori ties of that State” for two and a half months,
“despoiled of his sizable investments, busiesses, movable and immovable property and bank

accounts, and then expelled from the country” for seeking payment of debts owed to him by the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and by oil companies established in that country under contracts
with companies owned by him, namely, Africom-Zaire and Africontainers-Zaire.

As a basis for the Court’s jurisdiction, Guea relied on the declarations of, respectively,
8 February 1989 and 11 November 1998 whereby the Democratic Republic of the Congo and

Guinea itself accepted the Court’s compulsory jurisdiction.

By an Order of 25 November 1999, the Cour t fixed 11 September 2000 as the time-limit for
the filing of a Memorial by Guinea and 11Se ptember2001 as the time-limit for the filing of a
Counter-Memorial by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By an Order of 8September2000

those time-limits were respectively extended to 23 March 2001 and 4 October 2002. The Memorial
was filed within the time-limit as extended. - 2 -

On 3October2002, within the time-limit fixe d for the filing of the Counter-Memorial, the
DRC raised certain preliminary objections to th e admissibility of Guinea’s Application; the

proceedings on the merits were accordingly susp ended. By an Order of 7November2002, the
Court fixed 7July2003 as the time-limit for Gu inea to present a written statement containing its
observations and submissions on the preliminary ob jections raised by the DRC. That written
statement was filed within the prescribed time-limit.

Public hearings on the preliminary objections were held between 27Novemberand
1 December 2006.

On 24May2007, the Court rendered a Judgm ent declaring Guinea’s Application to be
admissible in so far as it concerned protection of Mr.Diallo’s rights as an individual and of his
direct rights as associé in Africom-Zaire and Africontainers-Zaire, but inadmissible in so far as it
concerned protection of Mr.Diallo in respect of alleged violations of the rights of Africom-Zaire

and Africontainers-Zaire.

By an Order of 27 June 2007, the Court fixed 27 March 2008 as the time-limit for the filing
of a Counter-Memorial by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Counter-Memorial was

filed within the time-limit thus fixed. By an Order of 5May2008, the Court authorized the
submission of a Reply by Guinea and a Rejoinder by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It
fixed 19November2008 and 5June2009 as the r espective time-limits for the filing of those
written pleadings, which were filed within the time-limits thus fixed.

Public hearings on the merits took place from 19 to 29 April 2010. At the conclusion of their
oral arguments, the Parties presented their final submissions to the Court.

The Republic of Guinea requested the Court

“to adjudge and declare: (a)that, in carrying out arbitrary arrests of its national,
Mr. Ahmadou Sadio Diallo, and expelling him; in not at that time respecting his right

to the benefit of the provisions of the 19 63 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations;
in submitting him to humiliating and degrading treatment; in depriving him of the
exercise of his rights of ownership, overs ight and management in respect of the
companies which he founded in the DRC and in which he was the sole associé; in

preventing him in that capacity from pursuing recovery of the numerous debts owed to
the said companies both by the DRC itself and by other contractual partners; and in
expropriating de facto Mr.Diallo’s property , the Democratic Republic of the Congo
has committed internationally wrongful act s which engage its responsibility to the

Republic of Guinea; (b)that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is accordingly
bound to make full reparation on account of the injury suffered by Mr. Diallo or by the
Republic of Guinea in the person of its national; (c) that such reparation shall take the
form of compensation covering the totality of the injuries caused by the internationally

wrongful acts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including loss of earnings,
and shall also include interest”.

Guinea further requested the Court

“kindly to authorize it to submit an assessment of the amount of the compensation due
to it on this account from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a subsequent phase
of the proceedings in the event that the tw o Parties should be unable to agree on the

amount thereof within a period of six months following delivery of the Judgment”. - 3 -

For its part, the Democratic Republic of the Co ngo, in the light of its arguments and of the
Court’s Judgment of 24 May 2007 on the preliminary objections, requested

“the Court to adjudge and declare that: 1.the Democratic Republic of the Congo has not
committed any internationally wrongful acts towards Guinea in respect of Mr.Diallo’s
individual personal rights; 2.the Democratic Republic of the Congo has not committed

any internationally wrongful acts towards Guinea irnespect of Mr. Diallo’s direct rights as
associéin Africom-Zaire and Africontainers-Zair;e 3. accordingly, the Application of the
Republic of Guinea is unfounded in fact and in law and no reparation is due”.

*

N OTE TO THE PRESS AND PUBLIC

1. The public sitting will be held in the Great Hall of Justice of the Peace Palace. Mobile
telephones are permitted in the courtroom provided they are switched off. Any offending device

will be temporarily retained.

2. Media representatives are subject to an online accreditation procedure , details of
which can be found in the Media Advisory (2010/h) attached to this Press Release. The
accreditation procedure will close at midnight on Thursday 25 November 2010.

3. Individual visitors (with the exception of members of the Diplomatic Corps) and groups

are subject to an online admission procedure. They are kindly requested to fill out the relevant
form on the Court’s website (click on “Attending a Hearing”). The admission procedure will
close at midnight on Thursday 25 November 2010.

4. At the end of the sitting, a Press Release, a summary of the Judgment and the full text of

the Judgment will be distributed. All of these docum ents will be made available at the same time
on the Court’s website.

___________

Information Department:

Mr. Andrey Poskakukhin, First Secretary of the Court, Head of Department (+31 (0)70 302 2336)
Mr. Boris Heim, Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2337)

Ms Joanne Moore, Associate Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2394)
Ms Genoveva Madurga, Administrative Assistant (+31 (0)70 302 2396)