Mali: international arrest warrant issued against three former ministers and a former bank director

Former Malian Prime Minister Boubou Cissé.

© AFP/LUDOVIC MARIN

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The Malian authorities have issued an international arrest warrant against three former ministers and against the former director of the Malian Solidarity Bank.

They are being prosecuted for "forgery, use of forgery and damage to public property", in a case of purchases of military equipment in 2015, according to the press release.

Advertising

Read more

The

authorities  had awarded a public contract of 60 million dollars, or nearly 39 billion CFA francs to the South African company Paramount for the purchase of armored vehicles.

However, according to a Malian judicial source contacted by AFP, some of these devices have not been delivered.

As a result, a judicial investigation was opened by the investigating chamber of the Supreme Court for “forgery, use of forgery, attack on public property and complicity in these offenses”.

Four officials at the time are therefore implicated in this case, including possible candidates for the next presidential election:

who was Minister of Finance from 2016 to 2019;

his predecessor in this position, Mamadou Igor Diarra;

Tiéman Hubert Coulibaly, Minister of Defense from 2015 to 2016;

as well as Babaly Bah, who at that time headed the BMS, the Malian Solidarity Bank.

An international arrest warrant was issued Monday, July 25 against these four officials, who have so far not reacted.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

• mali

• Justice