APA-Bamako (Mali) Professor Clement Dembele is accused of having made comments “threatening to kill the Head of State, his wife, his children and his brothers….”
Professor Clement Dembele has been under arrest since Friday November 17 at the Mali Judicial Investigation Brigade, and was brought before the Prosecutor of the Bamako Cybercrime Unit on Monday. He was placed under a committal order and imprisoned at the ‘Maison Centrale d’Arrêt de Bamako’ (MCA).
He had been arrested on his way to a meeting with journalists to explain why his planned rally against power cuts and the NINA file had not been authorized. The rally was initially scheduled for Friday November 17, at Bamako’s ‘Place de l’Indépendance.’
Pr. Dembele was arrested after a voice message attributed to him went viral on social networks, in which he made remarks “threatening to kill the Head of State, his wife, his children and his brothers….” In his voice, the speaker even described himself as a “born killer.”
For this reason, the Public Prosecutor of the Cybercrime Control Unit in Mali, Dr. Adama Coulibaly, took matters into his own hands and issued a “soit-transmis” (letter of transmittal) to the Criminal Investigation Brigade (BIJ) for investigations, in order to arrest him pending his appearance in court on Monday November 20.
After 72 hours in police custody, the President of the Anti-corruption and Unemployment Platform in Mali (PCC) was brought before the Public Prosecutor for a hearing that lasted several hours, and finally placed under a committal order. Since then, he has been a resident of the Bamako central prison until a date is set for his trial on the merits.
This is not Pr. Dembele’s first case with vocals circulating on social networks. In the wake of the fall of the late President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK), in August 2020, he made a similar accusation following a telephone conversation with the former president of Mali’s National Employers’ Council, Mamadou Sinsy Coulibaly. He invited Coulibaly to support him in his bid to become Prime Minister, promising to help him grow his business.
With his arrest, another major supporter of the transition has been locked up. Last September, another activist and supporter of the transition, Adama Ben Diarra, also known as “Ben le Cerveau,” leader of the pro-junta movement ‘Yerewolo – Debout sur les Remparts,’ suffered a similar fate. Stripped of his seat on the National Transitional Council (CNT) by decision of the authorities, he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for “undermining the credit of the State” and imprisoned, after declaring himself in favor of holding the presidential election in February 2024.
MD/ac/fss/abj/APA