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.
Source: Aljazeera
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