Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga, who was from 2017 to 2019 the Prime Minister of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, overthrown a year ago by a coup, was jailed on Thursday in a case of alleged fraud, announced his lawyer, Kassoum Tapo.
Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga, 67, is a political heavyweight in Mali and has also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense and as head of the intelligence services. He has never officially confirmed or denied his intentions to run for president.
“Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga was placed under arrest by Mali’s Supreme Court on Thursday in a case of damage to public property,” said a member of the Supreme Court, who requested anonymity. He is being questioned in connection with the purchase in 2014, when he was Minister of Defense, of a presidential plane, an acquisition pinned by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), an independent Malian authority, which has denounced practices of overbilling, misappropriation of public funds, fraud, influence peddling and favoritism.
“This presidential plane affair may splash a lot of people, it may be the beginning of a big wash” commented a former senior Malian official. Appointed Prime Minister in 2017, he had been forced to resign after the massacre of some 160 Fulani civilians in April 2019 in Ogossagou (center) and a series of protests against the management of the state.