In Mali, radio columnist and activist Ras Bath, along with four senior officials, have been detained for more than three months. They are suspected of having conspired against the Malian state. Former Prime Minister Boubou Cissé has also been charged but not arrested, he is currently hiding somewhere in Mali. Malia’s justice has already ordered that the prosecution be abolished, but Malia’s Minister of Justice disputes this decision. The relatives of the detainees are still asking for their release, UN experts added to their voices.
The arguments of UN experts are the same as those of defense lawyers. But in a process described as “political” by the relatives of those still imprisoned, their voice could carry more.
The Independent Human Rights Expert in Mali, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers say they are “concerned about the continued detention” of Ras Bath, a radio columnist and well-known activist in Mali, and four senior officials (Vital Robert Diop, Souleymane Kansaye, Mahamadou Koné and Aguibou Macky Tall) working for Malia’s public and state institutions.
Their arrest of the Malian intelligence services at the end of December was carried out without the involvement of any judicial authority and “outside any legal framework”, reminds UN experts, who also deplore the imprisonment that has caused them. .
The detainees were then accused of trying to destabilize the state, based on a dismissal by the intelligence services, but the Bamako Court of Appeal rejected those allegations. and decided to abandon the procedure. It was March 2nd. Since then, the lawyer in Mali has questioned the decision and appealed to the Supreme Court. A decision qualified as “legal harassment” by UN experts, who do not hesitate to talk about “motives with political connotations”.
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