Malian court hands down heavy jail terms, death sentences to Ivorian soldiers
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - A Malian court has handed down stiff jail terms and death sentences to Ivorian soldiers detained in Bamako since 10 July for allegedly flying into the country to destabilise the government.
PANA learned from the special assize court that sat behind closed doors that 46 soldiers, who have been detained in Bamako since 10 July, were each jailed 20 years and fined two million CFA francs.
Three females who were released in August on humanitarian grounds were sentenced in absentia to death and ordered to pay 10 million CFA francs each for failing to appear in court on the day of the trial.
They were all found guilty, among other things, of criminal association, plotting against the government, undermining the external security of the state, possession, carrying and transporting weapons and munitions of war.
The judgement comes in the wake of a memorandum signed last week between the Malian and Ivorian authorities, providing for the strengthening of relations of good neighbourliness, friendship and fraternity and the release of 46 Ivorian soldiers.
The Ivorian soldiers were defended by five lawyers appointed by the Malian state.
Forty-nine Ivorian soldiers were arrested in Bamako on 10 July by the Malian authorities who accused them of being "mercenaries".
The Ivorian authorities and the UN dismissed the claim saying that the soldiers were on mission in Mali as part of the United Nations Multidimensional Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
-0- PANA GT/JSG/BBA/MA 31Dec2022
