Mali: imprisoned, Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga will answer to five charges

Former Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga.

RFI / David Baché

Text by: David Baché

3 min

In Mali, the former Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga and the former Minister of Economy Bouaré Fily Sissoko were imprisoned this Thursday, August 25.

Indicted and placed under arrest warrant following their summons before the judicial section of the Supreme Court, in the context of two cases dating back to 2014: that of the purchase of the presidential plane and that of the equipment contracts military, representing between them more than 130 billion CFA Francs.

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Reports from the Court of Auditors and the Auditor General

, but also from the IMF, had then pinpointed overbilling and numerous anomalies.

These files were closed in 2018 and then reopened last year.

Today, Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga, Minister of Defense at the time of the facts, and Bouaré Fily Sissoko, Minister of the Economy at the time, are officially indicted by the Supreme Court.

►Also read

: Case of the presidential plane in Mali: Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga placed under warrant of committal

Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga must answer for five counts: forgery, corruption, favoritism, breach of trust and influence peddling.

As for Ms. Bouaré Fily Sissoko, she is charged with offenses against public property, forgery and use of forgery, favoritism, nepotism and corruption.

Information obtained from judicial sources, even if the Attorney General of the Supreme Court, Mamadou Timbo, did not wish to respond, for the moment, to RFI's requests.

Several other members of the Supreme Court have indicated that they were not informed of the progress of this procedure, which they deplore.

As for Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga's lawyers, they prefer not to speak for the moment.

Presidential plane bought for nearly 20 billion FCFA

The purchase of a presidential plane at nearly 20 billion FCFA and the overbilling of military equipment contracts, with socks at 10,000 FCFA, had scandalized the country, and the relaunch of the procedure last year had been hailed by many anti-corruption players.

But its recent takeover by the Supreme Court, instead of the High Court of Justice, the only one competent in theory to judge ministers, raises many concerns.

Among the magistrates themselves, and among the relatives of those accused, who denounce an " 

instrumentalisation

 " of justice by the transitional authorities.

" 

They want to stop those who bother them

 ", comments a relative of Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga, who recalls that the former Prime Minister did not hide his presidential ambitions, and that he had recently spoken out against the extension of the duration of the transition.

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