The former deputy-mayor of Dabou (southern Cote d’Ivoire), Mr. Sess Soukou Mohamed, known as Ben Souk has been detained in Mali.
Souk, an executive of Generations and People’s Solidarity (GPS), a citizens’ movement created by Guillaume Soro, was arrested in Bamako, according to the Malian justice system.
His arrest comes in “execution of an international arrest warrant issued on 16 November 2020 by the judge of the 9th Cabinet of the Court of First Instance of Abidjan-Plateau, in Cote d’Ivoire,” said the prosecutor at the Court of First Instance of the IV commune of the District of Bamako, Idrissa Hamidou Toure.
The former deputy-mayor of Dabou is accused of “subversive acts that could be classified as criminal committed on national territory,” the note said, adding that he “was arrested on August 10, 2021 by the national gendarmerie.”
Mr. Sess Soukou Mohamed is a member of Generations and Peoples Solidarity (GPS) of Guillaume Soro, former president of the Ivorian National Assembly.
Soro was sentenced to life imprisonment for undermining state security.
“A special commission of preliminary investigations has been set up, headed by the commander of the Bamako gendarmerie territorial grouping, to identify the various implications of the incriminating acts,” the statement said.
According to the public prosecutor, this process aims to “determine their criminal intent with a view to the sound application of the law.”
He said this will be the subject of a later communiqué and that he can count on “the good understanding of all.”
AP/ls/fss/as/APA