Arrest warrant against Karim Keïta: first consequences
IBK's son, Karim Keita in Bamako when he was chairman of the Defense committee of the Assembly.
July 11, 2018 © AFP - Michèle Cattani
Text by: David Baché
4 min
On July 5, the Malian justice issued an international arrest warrant against former deputy Karim Keïta, who fled to Côte d'Ivoire when his father, former president IBK, was dismissed.
Justice wants to hear it in the context of the disappearance of Malian journalist Birama Touré, who has not given any sign of life since January 2016.
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Since the issuance of an
international arrest warrant
, Karim Keïta has certainly not appeared before the Malian judge, but several things have changed all the same.
First consequence, the lawyer of the family of
Birama Touré
, at the origin of a procedure in France, plans to also be constituted in Mali, in the coming days.
At the time, more than five years ago, the family had chosen to file a complaint in France, judging the Malian justice to be unable to investigate a case involving the son of the President of the Republic then in office.
The allegations of torture and assassination made it possible to invoke the universal jurisdiction of French justice in this case.
► To read also: Arrest warrant against Karim Keïta: how Paris helped Bamako on the case
But with the issuance of this arrest warrant, the Malian justice seems to want to give new impetus to the investigation.
Is it because the judge collected new elements?
Or simply because the context is more favorable, the father of Karim Keïta, IBK, no longer in power?
Testimonials
Testimonies had indeed already been communicated to the judges, in France and in Mali: those in particular of a person presenting himself as a fellow detainee of Birama Touré in the jails of the state security, or of a former soldier of the Malian intelligence .
Testimonies supporting the thesis of an arrest of Birama Touré without any procedure, acts of torture and murder.
And, for some of them, the involvement of Karim Keïta as order giver.
► To read also: Arrest warrant against Karim Keïta: satisfaction for the relatives of journalist Birama Touré
Last week, in addition to the initial complaint against X, the lawyer for Birama Touré's family also filed a complaint specifically directed against a Malian state security soldier, possibly involved in the assassination of Birama. Touré, and who is currently living in France.
New lawyers
To defend himself, a few days after the issuance of the international arrest warrant targeting him, Karim Keïta even hired new lawyers: the Malian Maître Kassoum Tapo and the French Maître Marcel Ceccaldi. It is the same pair who defended former Prime Minister Boubou Cissé, when he was accused - along with several senior officials of Malian institutions - of conspiracy against the state at the end of last year. Charges denounced as "
political
" by those concerned, and to which the Malian justice had finally given no follow-up. And Karim Keïta, who remains presumed innocent, has always assured that he is in no way linked to the journalist's disappearance.
Maître Tapo explains today that he still has not had access to the file, despite the issuance of an international arrest warrant against Karim Keïta.
However, according to him, an arrest warrant has the value of an indictment.
He therefore asks the judge to let him access the file, so that he can defend his client.
Otherwise, the arrest warrant must, according to Maître Tapo, be considered invalid.
This is the subject of a note that will be sent by Karim Keïta's lawyers to Interpol in the coming days.
Finally on the decision to extradite or not Karim Keïta to Mali, so that he can answer the examining magistrate's questions, the Ivorian government spokesman said last week that no decision had yet been made. taken.
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