Mali: the transition adopts two amnesty laws for the putschists
Assimi Goïta, at the head of the Malian transition.
© Annie Risemberg / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The texts concern the coup d'état of August 2020, against the president of the time, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, and the coup of May 2021 against the president of the transition Bah N'daw.
Concretely, this means that the putschists of the junta, in the first place Assimi Goïta, can no longer be prosecuted by the courts for their actions against the authorities in place during these two periods.
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The first amnesty law covers the period from August 18 to September 24, 2020. That is to say from the mutiny led by Assimi Goïta until the investiture of Bah N'daw as president of the transition .
The second text concerns the period from May 24, 2021, the day of the arrest of Bah N'daw and his prime minister Moctar Ouane by the military,
until their release in August
.
No prosecution
By virtue of these laws, during these two periods, the authors of acts of “
insubordination, military conspiracy, desertion
” cannot be prosecuted by the Malian justice. However, in article 121 of the Malian Constitution, it is clearly stipulated that any coup or putsch is an imprescriptible crime against the Malian people.
An obstacle swept away by Souleymane Dé, the chairman of the law commission of the National Council of the Transition, which currently serves as a legislative body: "
What is new and what everyone will need to understand is that it was not a coup d'etat. There was no coup d'etat because the Constitution was not suspended and the president voluntarily resigned. There was no resignation under pressure, there is no forced resignation, it does not exist. Really, in Guinea, there is a coup, but in Mali, there was no coup.
"
Souleymane Dé therefore rather evokes a “
completion of an ongoing process
” in reference to the popular demonstrations which demanded in 2020 the resignation of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and “
rectification of the transition
” for the coup de force of last May.
"
National reconciliation
"
To date, according to him, the only people who can ask for compensation are the Malians who have seen their property damaged
during the demonstrations against the regime of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta
: “
At the time, a lot of things happened.
Some people who may have had nothing to do with the regime in place may have had their homes ransacked, their cars set on fire or had some damage.
These are the people who can go before the judges to obtain reparations.
"
Souleymane Dé defends these two draft amnesty laws tabled by the Minister of Justice as necessary ingredients "
for national reconciliation and the return of tranquility and the reestablishment of confidence between the actors of the moment
."
"
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Mali
Justice
Assimi Goïta