Minister of Justice
In June 1972, Telli was succeeded by Nzo Ekangaki of Cameroon as OAU Secretary-General. Telli returned to Guinea and was appointed Minister of Justice on 21 August 1972. His decision to return to Guinea was puzzling. He had many other offers from African heads of state and international organizations. He would also be in danger. Some people in Guinea even thought that Sékou Touré had used occult means to lure him back. According to Andre Lewin, Touré's biographer, Telli was the only person who could potentially challenge Touré in his Presidency. Therefore Touré felt a special need to destroy him.
As Minister of Justice, at a conference at the University of Conakry, he stated that justice was the key that opened all doors, and urged students to pursue legal studies. However, Telli obeyed party directives and was the author of the law of June 1973 that removed all independence from the judiciary, creating people's courts at the village and neighborhood levels. His technical counselor at the time said that Telli was "naive, very nervous, often super-exited, very careless in his words and actions, full of candor and disordered in his work." After the reconciliation between France and Guinea in July 1975, Sékou Touré suggested, at a meal celebrating the occasion, that Telli could be a suitable candidate to be Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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