The head of the transitional authority in Mali, Colonel Asimi Guita, issued a pardon for 49 soldiers from Ivory Coast who were arrested last year and sentenced to prison after being convicted on charges that included conspiracy against the state of Mali and threatening the country's external security.
These soldiers were arrested at the airport in the capital, Bamako, last July, and the ruling military council in Mali described the soldiers as mercenaries, while Ivory Coast said they were part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission.
The authorities later released 3 of the women, and the remaining 46 soldiers were sentenced to 20 years in prison on December 30 for attempting to undermine state security, while the three female soldiers were sentenced to death in absentia.
"The transitional president, Colonel Asimi Guetta, has pardoned and completely annulled the sentences of 49 Ivorian soldiers," a government spokesman in Mali said in a statement on national television.
The statement added that this gesture shows once again Guetta's commitment to peace, dialogue and African unity, considering the move as an "independent decision" that symbolizes the president's commitment to maintaining "fraternal relations" with the countries of the region, especially Ivory Coast, and did not specify the date for the soldiers' departure from prison.