Mali: UN experts demand the release of Ras Bath and his co-defendants
Ras Bath and four senior officials are suspected of being held for more than three months on suspicion of an attempted conspiracy against the state.
Their relatives and UN experts talk about a "political" issue, Bamako, April 2021. © RFI / David Baché
Text by: David Baché
3 min
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 fomented a plot against the Malian state.
Former Prime Minister Boubou Cissé has also been accused, but not arrested, he is currently hiding somewhere in Mali.
The Malian justice has already ordered that the prosecution be dropped, but the Malian Attorney General is contesting this decision.
The relatives of the imprisoned people are still asking for their release, to their voice added that of United Nations experts.
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The arguments put forward by UN experts are the same as those of defense lawyers.
But in a procedure described as "
political
" by the relatives of those still imprisoned, their voice could carry more.
The independent expert on the human rights situation in Mali, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers say they are "
alarmed by 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 public and parastatal institutions Malian.
Their arrest by the Malian intelligence services at the end of December took place without the involvement of any judicial authority and "
outside any legal framework
", recall the UN experts, who also deplore the incommunicado detention which has caused them. been inflicted at first.
The detainees were then charged with attempting to destabilize the state, based on a denunciation by the intelligence services, but the Bamako Court of Appeal dismissed these charges
and decided to drop the proceedings
.
It was March 2.
Since then, the Attorney General of Mali has challenged the decision and appealed to the Supreme Court.
A decision qualified as "
judicial harassment
" by the UN experts, who do not hesitate to speak, in turn, of "
motivations with political connotations
".
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