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As the West African nation’s military leaders intensify their crackdown on allegations of a coup plot, former prime minister Choguel Maiga has been detained and charged with embezzlement.

Following a hearing before Mali’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, the allegations against Maiga were made public.

Maiga, who became president in Mali in a second coup in 2021, was ousted in November 2024 after publicly criticizing the military for lack of clarity regarding the transition to a civilian government.

No trial date has been set for the former leader’s trial, according to Maiga’s attorney, Cheick Oumar Konare, according to Cheick Oumar Konare’s AFP news agency.

Konare remarked, “We are calm while the trial is pending,” adding that Maiga would continue to be imprisoned for the trial.

According to a statement from the public prosecutor, “money laundering amounts to many billions of CFA francs,” or several million US dollars, is being brought against Maiga.

The former prime minister was detained a week ago, the AFP reported. This was days after Mali’s military leaders made numerous arrests in an effort to discredit an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

Nine of Maiga’s former colleagues, all of whom were prime ministers, showed up in court on Tuesday, with two facing charges, some acquittal, and others awaiting trial, according to the AFP, citing a judicial source.

After tweeting his support for detained military critics earlier this month, another former prime minister, Moussa Mara, was sentenced to a prison.

Since 2012, Mali has experienced a security crisis, which is brought on by local criminal gangs, armed organizations affiliated with al-Qaeda, and the ISIL (ISIS) group. According to Human Rights Watch, there are currently 350, 000 people displaced while thousands of people have died as a result of the fighting.

In 2020, the military will be able to overthrow the country’s elected government in a coup due to the crisis.

A transitional government was briefly given to the military, but a second coup in 2021 took the place.

Assimi Goita, the colonel who took control of the two power grabs, swore in as the transitional leader the same year. The military has broken promises made to civilians by the end of March 2024 and has tightened its hold on power by dissolved all political parties, indicting dissidents, and placing prominent civil society figures in jail.

The military-appointed legislative body approved legislation in July that gave Goita a five-year presidential mandate that could be renewed without having to hold elections.

Maiga, who was one of the protesters who helped to end Mali’s civilian government in 2020, previously claimed he believed the military would protect democracy. No political power can ever again impose the conditions for a return to an unconstitutional order, so we must refound the Malian state! In a 2023 interview, he told Al Jazeera.

Maiga has become one of the military’s most vehement critics since his dismissal, though he claims that it has used the courts to silence dissention.

Maiga’s arrest and imprisonment on Tuesday, according to experts, shows how fragile the military system is.

According to Alioune Tine, the former UN rapporteur on Mali, “If the most prominent opposition leaders are arrested and imprisoned, including Choguel, who once gave the junta credibility, then I believe that today’s junta credibility is greatly diminished.”

You’re still in danger, just 30 kilometers [31 miles] from Bamako. The majority of the territory is under al-Qaeda’s affiliate JNIM. According to him, President Goita needs to change his mind about releasing journalists and activists and starting a national dialogue that will lead to legitimate democratic elections.

General Abdoulaye Maiga, who had previously served as the country’s military spokesman, has been replaced by Maiga by Mali’s military leaders.

A wave of coups in the Sahel region, south of the Sahara desert, are being sparked by the military’s use of force in Mali, including those against Burkinabe and Niger, which are fighting the same terrorist organizations as al-Qaeda and ISIL.

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed French President Emmanuel Macron was behind the “anti-Semitic fire” in France by proposing to grant Palestinian statehood, a diplomatic row erupted between Israel and Paris.

A letter from the AFP news agency on Tuesday that claimed anti-Semitism had “spewed” in France following President Macron’s recent declaration that he would recognize Palestine as a state at a meeting of the UN General Assembly next month contained Netanyahu’s accusation against the French leader.

On Tuesday, the French president’s office quickly retaliated against Netanyahu, calling his allegations “abject” and “erroneous” and promising that they “will not go unanswered.”

The French presidency stated that “this is a time for seriousness and responsibility, not conflation and manipulation,” adding that France “protects and will always protect its Jewish citizens.”

It stated that “violence against the]French] Jewish community is unacceptable.

The deputy minister for European affairs, Benjamin Haddad, said that France had “no lessons to learn” from Netanyahu’s letter.

Haddad claimed that the problem, “which is poisoning our European societies,” should not be “exploited.”

According to reports, France, which is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, has joined the 193 UN members who currently or intends to recognize a Palestinian state.

Encourages the Jew-hatred that is currently persecuting your streets.

Netanyahu wrote to Macron in a letter stating, “Your call for a Palestinian state adds more to this antisemitic fire.” It’s appeasement rather than diplomacy. It encourages the Jew-hatred that is currently persecuting your streets, encourages Hamas’s terror, and strengthens Hamas’s refusal to release the hostages.

Netanyahu and Macron’s diplomatic spat come as Netanyahu accused Israeli Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of being “a weak politician who abandoned Australia’s Jews and betrayed Israel.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister:

Albanese will be remembered as a weak politician in history.
who abandoned Australia’s Jews and betrayed Israel.

Simcha Rothman, an Israeli politician whose ultranationalist party makes up Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, was denied visa by the Albanese government on Monday.

Rothman was scheduled to speak at the Australian Jewish Association’s events.

Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, announced a few hours later that he had revoked Australia’s ambassador’s visas for the Palestinian Authority.

Saar added that I have given the Israeli Embassy in Canberra a thorough look at any official Australian visa applications for entry into Israel.

He said, “This comes in response to Australia’s decision to recognize a “palestinian state” and in response to Australia’s justified refusal to grant visas to a number of Israeli figures.

Penny Wong, the Australian government’s foreign affairs minister, called Israel’s decision to revoke diplomats’ visas an “unjustified response” and claimed that Netanyahu’s government was causing the country’s diplomatic isolation to worsen.

The Netanyahu government is isolating Israel and undermining international efforts for peace and a two-state solution, according to Wong in a statement.

Netanyahu was “in denial” about the humanitarian crisis brought on by Israel’s punishing war on Gaza, according to Albanese last week.

More than 700, 000 people in the war-ravaged territory have been forcibly displaced and re-displaced by Israeli forces, according to Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who reported on Tuesday that Israeli authorities had prohibited shelter items like tents from entering Gaza for about five months.

Because it thinks tent poles could be used for military purposes, Laerke claimed that Israel has classified tents as “dual use.”

Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office, warned that the occupation of Gaza City by Israel was a potential humanitarian disaster.