Mali: General Moussa Diawara arrested in connection with the Birama Touré affair
The son of the Malian president, Karim Keïta (r.), Here in Bamako in 2014, would have played the role of ordering party in the kidnapping of Birama Touré.
HABIBOU KOUYATE / AFP
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7 mins
In Mali, General Moussa Diawara was arrested this Thursday, July 29 and detained in Bamako.
From a judicial source, he was indicted in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Birama Touré, who has not given any sign of life since January 2016. It also targets Karim Keïta, the son of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta.
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Former Chief of Staff of the National Guard, General Moussa Diawara mainly directed the Malian intelligence services throughout the IBK era, from his election as president in 2013 to his ouster in a coup in August. last.
He was arrested and charged, in particular with complicity in kidnapping, forcible confinement, acts of torture and criminal association.
However, testimonies collected by the former employer of Birama Touré, the publication director of the
Sphinx,
Adama Dramé, currently a refugee in France, precisely question the Malian services.
According to these testimonies, taken from a soldier and a former co-detainee of Birama Touré in particular, the journalist was imprisoned in a secret State Security prison, outside any legal framework, tortured and then killed.
Prime contractor
It is probably on these allegations that the Malian justice wishes to hear the former director of the Malian services.
Just as she wishes to hear
Karim Keïta
: the son of the former president, presented as an order giver, has been the subject of an international arrest warrant since the beginning of the month.
After the coup d'état that overthrew his father, whose intelligence services General Moussa Diawara headed for seven years, he fled to Côte d'Ivoire where he remains today.
On another note, last August,
a United Nations expert report
accused General Moussa Diawara of hampering the implementation of the 2015 peace agreement, by favoring certain actors to the detriment of others and by accumulating on purpose the delays.
UN experts also accused him of having freed drug traffickers in exchange for money.
Glitzy birthday
Discreet because of his profession, General Moussa Diawara had yet made known his thin mustaches to Malians in March 2019, when videos of his sumptuous birthday had circulated on social networks.
For his 50th birthday, the one who still headed state security had offered the services of Congolese star Fally Ipupa, before receiving a 4x4 as a gift, under the eyes of political and military officials invited to his villa.
In Mali, General Moussa Diawara was arrested Thursday and detained in Bamako.
From a judicial source, he was charged in particular with complicity in kidnapping, kidnapping, acts of torture and criminal association, as part of the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Birama Touré, who no longer given sign of life since January 2016.
Reached by telephone, Maître Eric Moutet, the lawyer for Birama Touré's family, this person will now be able to be heard by the judge.
“
Any progress in this ongoing investigation is of course a cause for celebration for the family.
On a case that has been dragging on for several years now, we are truly delighted with the boost put by the Malian magistrate.
"
I do not know his degree of involvement, or if even if he was, but in any case, in his capacity as manager of this service, his hearing is a key element
Eric Moutet, lawyer for the Birama Touré family
"
I can imagine
[on what the judge wants to hear it]
, since the person who was arrested is a former director of state security," he adds, "we have a number of elements in the file which tend to accredit the hypothesis of an arrest, detention, and even torture within this service, of Birama Touré, it seems logical that this person should be heard by the examining magistrate. This is absolutely essential. We expect a lot from it, of course since it is all the same - I do not know his degree of involvement, or if it was even -, but in any case, in his capacity as director of this service his hearing is a key element.
"
► To read also:
Birama Touré case: the former head of Malian intelligence Moussa Diawara arrested
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Mali
Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta
Assimi Goïta
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