The Malian authorities on Thursday charged six figures, including a former prime minister, with seeking to mount a coup, a move that came after a military putsch in August, their lawyers said. The public prosecutor’s office in the capital Bamako said in a statement that six people were under investigation for “plotting against the government, criminal association, insulting the head of state and complicity”. A group of lawyers defending the six said the individuals, who include Boubou Cisse (photo above), the last prime minister before the August putsch, had been charged with an “attempted coup”. Five of the six have been detained in custody, except for Cisse, whose whereabouts are unknown, the public prosecutor said. […]
On Monday, security sources said a number of people had been detained on December 21, while the prosecutor’s office said a “preliminary inquiry” had been opened “relating to violations of state security”.Those detained, the sources said, included Aguibou Tall, Cisse’s half-brother; the secretary of the president’s office, Sekou Traore; and Mohamed Youssouf Bathily, a campaigner and radio presenter who is popular
among young Malians. In the runup to their arrest, social media said there had been a scheme to “destabilise” Mali’s post-coup transitional institutions. Läs artikel