Malian opposition leaders Oumar Mariko will remain in prison until his trial. The president of the Sadi party was held in the gendarmerie. In custody for nearly 48 hours, he was finally placed under arrest Tuesday afternoon, December 7.
He and two other people are accused of having made and broadcast offensive comments against Prime Minister Choguel Maïga. The three men were transferred in the early afternoon to the Central Arrest House in Bamako.
According to the prosecutor’s office of the Commune IV court in Bamako, Oumar Mariko is accused of insulting the Prime Minister, “through an information and communication system”. His co-accused, Bakary Camara, is being prosecuted for having broadcast these remarks on social networks. Boubacar Soumaoro, known as Bouba Fané, was accused of “violation of the secrecy of communication”.
This is because the remarks of which Oumar Mariko is accused – he insulted Choguel Maïga and called him a “liar” – were made in a private voice recording that was not intended to be in the public domain.
This is precisely the line of defense of Oumar Mariko, a figure, along with his two co-accused, of the protest that led to the fall of the dictator Moussa Traoré in 1991, and an eternal opponent since then.
Their lawyers “contest” the “validity and legality” of this procedure, on the grounds that the recordings in question were obtained, according to them, in an illegal manner.
The prosecution has set 15 February as the date for the appearance of Oumar Mariko and his two co-accused.