Human Rights Watch said yesterday that Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara appeared in front of the investigative judges on Wednesday, a week after charges were filed. He was not taken into custody.

The Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights said in a statement that the charges against Tiegboro Camara were "a positive signal to the victims of these crimes who are waiting for justice".

He is the highest official to be charged following the September 28 massacre in which 157 people were killed and scores of women raped when troops descended on an opposition protest.

Thousands had gathered in a Conakry stadium to voice opposition to Moussa Dadis Camara's military junta.

In a Human Rights Watch report released several months after the massacre, Tiegboro Camara was implicated as "among those most responsible for the serious crimes committed".

Human Rights Watch yesterday said: "Tiegboro Camara and gendarmes in his unit entered the stadium together with members of the p residential g uard.

"Some of the gendarmes in his unit took an active part in the massacre, and, to a lesser degree, in the sexual violence that followed."

As Guinea struggled to hold its first-ever democratic election in 2010, with many implicated in the massacre appointed to top positions by President Alpha Conde, concerns have been raised over a lack of progress in investigating the massacre.

Camara is a minister in the presidency in charge of fighting drug trafficking and organised crime.