APA – Bamako (Mali) Mohamed Youssouf Bathily alias Ras Bath known for his strong criticism of the transitional authorities in Mali is back in prison.
He was first bundled from his home before being taken to the 5th district police station in Bamako.
After a hearing lasting more than five hours, he was finally presented to the prosecutor of the Commune IV of the District of Bamako who placed him under detention.
The charge against him is simulation of an offence. According to Article 19 of the Malian Penal Code, anyone who denounces to the public authorities an offence that he knows did not exist or who fabricates false evidence relating to a real or imaginary offence is prosecuted for “simulation of an offence.”
He is to be sentenced to one month to three years imprisonment and a fine of 20,000 to 100,000 FCFA.
While his trial is scheduled for June 13, Ras Bath’s arrest relates to comments he made on March 11 at a national conference of the Alliance for Solidarity in Mali-Convergence of Patriotic Forces (ASMA-CFP) party of former Prime Minister Soumelou Boubèye Maïga.
Speaking on that occasion, Ras Bath described the death of the latter in March 2022 as an “assassination.”
He had supported his remarks by the fact that despite the favourable opinions of doctors for the evacuation of Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and the constant requests by his relatives for this, the authorities refused.
A few days ago, speaking in the media, Cheick Mohamed Chérif Koné, a former leading lawyer of the Supreme Court, the institution that indicted the former prime minister in August 2021 for “attacks on public property through embezzlement” in a case of military equipment purchases, described the death of Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga as a “judicial tragedy.”
However, in a note making the rounds on social media, his relatives had renounced the autopsy of his remains.
Obviously, this case is far from reaching its conclusion, especially since to date there are still two figures of the former regime whose names were linked to this case, namely the former Minister of Finance, Ms. Bouaré Fily Sissoko and the former director of cabinet of the Malian presidency, Mahamadou Camara, who have been imprisoned for several months.
Ras Bath had already spent a few months in prison in 2021 for “contempt of court.”
MD/ac/lb/as/APA