Bamako – Mali is seeking to arrest three former ministers and an ex-bank director in a probe into the allegedly fraudulent purchase of armoured vehicles in 2015, a judicial source and statement said on Friday.
The Sahel country has been run by a military junta since August 2020, when colonels angered at failures to roll back a jihadist insurgency toppled the country’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
The supreme court on Monday issued an international arrest warrant against former finance ministers Boubou Cisse and Mamadou Igor Diarra, ex-defence minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, and the former director of the Malian Solidarity Bank, Babaly Bah, its prosecutor said in a statement.
All stand accused of “forgery” and mismanagement of public assets, it said without providing further details.
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A judicial source on Friday told AFP that the arrest warrants came in a case involving the $60-million purchase in 2015 of armoured vehicles from South African firm Paramount. A part of the order never arrived.
It is just the latest allegation of fraud against cabinet members under ousted president Keita.
Last year, authorities detained and questioned former premier Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga in connection with the allegedly fraudulent purchase of a presidential plane in 2014, when Maiga was serving as defence minister.
Mali’s government auditor found that officials had embezzled public money by overbilling for the plane.
Maiga died in March while still in custody, surrounded by guards at a clinic in the capital.
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Source: AFP
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