Mali: radio columnist and influencer prosecuted for "criminal association"

Malian activist Ras Bath at a rally in August 2018. © AFP - MICHELE CATTANI

Text by: David Baché

3 min

Ras Bath and "Rose vie chère" are now being prosecuted for "criminal association". Radio columnist Mohamed Youssouf Bathily and influencer Rokia Doumbia were already imprisoned and awaiting trial. Other charges now hang over them in a new procedure.

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Ras Bath was taken out of his cell on Tuesday, March 28 "chained", according to his lawyer, and presented to an investigating judge of the court of Commune IV of Bamako. According to a source close to the prosecutor's office, Ras Bath was charged with "criminal association" and "undermining the credit of the state caught in its judicial and political governance".

File access denied

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Which criminals are we talking about? ", asks the lawyer of Ras Bath, Kassoum Tapo, who indicates that access to the file has been refused.

► READ ALSO: Mali: the columnist Ras Bath will be tried for denouncing the "assassination" of Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga

Two and a half weeks ago, on 13 March, Ras Bath was imprisoned after declaring, at a public political meeting, that Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga had been "murdered", without specifying by whom. The former prime minister died in custody a year ago. The Malian transitional authorities had refused his medical evacuation, despite medical recommendations.

"Preventing him from making critical statements"

Ras Bath is already due to appear in court on 13 June for "simulating an offence" and "undermining the credit of the State caught in legal proceedings, through an information system".

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They know that this procedure does not hold, so they try something else to keep him in prison and prevent him from making critical statements. " said Kassoum Tapo, who filed a request for provisional release last week.

"Rose high cost" too

The lawyer also defends Rokia Doumbia, an influencer known for denouncing the high cost of living on social networks, and charged in turn Wednesday, March 29 by the same investigating judge and for the same reasons as Ras Bath.

It is because of this live video that the influencer, Rokia Doumbia aka Mrs. fight the high cost of living - Auntie Rose, was arrested yesterday Monday by the 5th district of Police and placed in custody.
———//////———
"This transition is a failure with a balance sheet of 0%. None... pic.twitter.com/9ksWSBruqJ

— KONATE Malick (@konate90) March 14, 2023

The one nicknamed "Rose vie chère" had been placed under arrest warrant on March 15, after having estimated in a video that the Transition was "a failure" because of the increase in the price of many basic products. In this video, she directly challenged the "colonels" who run the country, starting with Assimi Goïta, head of state.

Rokia Doumbia is due to appear in court on 14 June for, inter alia, "incitement to revolt" and "insult and violence against the head of state". The charges against her are therefore now heavier.

Ras Bath and Rose "are thus the subject of two warrants of detention now, one from the prosecutor's office and the other from the investigating judge before whom other people are also targeted," says the same source close to the prosecutor's office of the court of Commune IV of Bamako. And to slip this comment: "The situation is complicated for them, because in front of an investigating judge, you have to count the time.

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These prosecutions are inadmissible ", says Kassoum Tapo, who adds: "The instrumentalization of justice must stop.

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