Of the seven people arrested last week by state security, five are being prosecuted. The transitional authorities have not expressed an opinion on the matter.
Two people were released; five others were transferred to the gendarmerie. Sékou Traoré, chief of staff of the presidency with the rank of minister, as well as Souhahebou Coulibaly, director of the state agency Agefau, were indeed able to return home free. Sékou Traoré even resumed his work at the presidential palace.
But the five other people arrested were transferred Friday evening to Camp 1 of the Bamako gendarmerie after being detained for several days without any legal procedure. Their case has therefore been judicialised.
They are two senior officials of the Treasury, Mr. Kone and Keita, the director of the PMU, Vital Robert Diop, the radio columnist and activist Mohamed Youssouf Bathily aka Ras Bath, and the deputy director of the state agency Agefau, Aguibou Tall, also half-brother of former Prime Minister Boubou Cissé.
It is the office of Maître Kassoum Tapo who defends the interests of the ex-Prime Minister and Aguibou Tall, to whom one of his collaborators was able to visit. “He is being prosecuted for violating the internal security of the state,” explains the lawyer, who specifies that his client was questioned about his links with the other arrested persons or with the UNTM union, the National Union of Workers of Mali. According to the lawyer, the other detainees would be prosecuted on the same grounds.
Two people were released, five others were transferred to the gendarmerie. Sékou Traoré, chief of staff of the presidency with the rank of minister, as well as Souhahebou Coulibaly, director of the state agency Agefau, were indeed able to return home free. Sékou Traoré even resumed his work at the presidential palace.
But the five other people arrested were transferred Friday evening to Camp 1 of the Bamako gendarmerie after being detained for several days without any legal procedure. Their case has therefore been judicialised.
They are two senior officials of the Treasury, Mr. Kone and Keita, the director of the PMU, Vital Robert Diop, the radio columnist and activist Mohamed Youssouf Bathily aka Ras Bath, and the deputy director of the state agency Agefau, Aguibou Tall, also half-brother of former Prime Minister Boubou Cissé.
It is the office of Maître Kassoum Tapo who defends the interests of the ex-Prime Minister and Aguibou Tall, to whom one of his collaborators was able to visit. “He is being prosecuted for violating the internal security of the state,” explains the lawyer, who specifies that his client was questioned about his links with the other arrested persons or with the UNTM union, the National Union of Workers of Mali. According to the lawyer, the other detainees would be prosecuted on the same grounds.
The transitional authorities never communicated about this series of arrests, so they never explained the reasons for them, but the questions put to Maître Tapo’s client confirm certain information that had already leaked out: “They spoke to him of an attempt to destabilize and a coup d’état. But there is nothing apart from the questions,” says Maître Tapo, “they have no material evidence. It is now up to the public prosecutor to decide, and whether or not to refer the case to an investigating judge.