Attorney General dismissed

Guinea-Bissau President Kumba Yala dismissed Attorney General Rui Sanha on Thursday, replacing him with former prime minister Caetano Intchama who had hitherto been head of the country's Internal Audit Board. The move came as Guinea-Bissau's bar association accused Yala, in an open letter published in the press, of interfering in the affairs of the judiciary. Two weeks earlier, Yala had termed its members corrupt and incompetent. No explanation was given for Sanha's dismissal, the third member of the ruling Social Renovation Party (PRS - Partido da Renovacao Social) to have lost his post in recent weeks. The others include the former presidential adviser on social and religious affairs, Ibrahima Djalo, who quit his post following Yala's decision to expel the Ahmadiyya Islamic order from the country. A court overturned that decision. Ex-interior minister Artur Sanha was dropped from the cabinet last week following the death of a woman with whom he reportedly had a romantic relationship. His dismissal followed calls to that effect from human rights advocates.