A Guinean court has filed charges against a government official for his alleged role in the 2009 massacre of anti-government demonstrators.

Colonel Moussa Tiegboro Camara is the highest-level official to be charged in connection with the crackdown, in which government forces fired on people protesting the military junta that ruled Guinea at the time.

More than 150 people were killed and more than 100 women raped at a stadium in the capital, Conakry.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said forces commanded by Camara took “an active part in the massacre and, to a lesser degree, in the sexual violence that followed.”

In a statement, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights says the filing of charges against Camara is a “positive signal to the victims of these crimes who are waiting for justice.”

The federation also called for judges in the case to receive protection, given Camara's positions in the government and the military.

Colonel Camara is currently a government minister in charge of fighting drug trafficking and organized crime.

At least two other men have been charged in connection with the case.

Military rule in Guinea came to end in 2010, when President Alpha Conde won the country's first democratic election.