Issa Kaou N’Djim, 4th vice president of the National Transitional Council (CNT, the transitional parliament), was arrested on Tuesday 26 October at the request of the prosecutor of Bamako’s Commune 4, and was charged on Thursday with “disturbing public order and undermining state credit. He will be tried this Friday in flagrante delicto.
Before entering the courtyard of the civil prison in Bamako after his indictment, Issa Kaou N’Djim murmured, a bit fatalistic according to a witness: “Whatever God does right”…
A few moments before, he was in front of the court of Commune 4 of Bamako, whose prosecutor, Idrissa Hamidou Touré, is currently one of the most feared men in the Malian capital. It was one of his deputies who charged the 4th vice president of the National Transitional Council, the legislative body, with “disturbing public order and damaging the credit of the state.
The case began in early July. In one of his favorite social media outings, Issa Kaou N’Djim criticized the Malian transitional authorities.
He officially supports the President of the transition, Colonel Assimi Goïta, whom he describes as “unflappable”, but is very critical of Prime Minister Choguel Maïga, who he says “is not the right man for the job”.
Kaou N’Djim’s latest outing before his arrest is yet another sharp criticism of the Malian head of government after Mali’s decision to declare the ECOWAS special representative in Mali “persona non grata.
Issa Kaou N’Djim’s lawyer, Mr. Kassoum Tapo, denounced an “arbitrary” arrest because, according to him, his client is covered by parliamentary immunity.