Former minister Mahamadou Camara was released from prison on Thursday afternoon March 16. Release on bail, this is what a press release from the Supreme Court of Mali specifies. Ms. Bouaré Fily Sissoko, also a former minister, did not pay this deposit, set at 500 million CFA francs. She therefore remains incarcerated. These two personalities are being prosecuted as part of an investigation into embezzlement of public money.
In his statement, the Attorney General of the Supreme Court, Mamadou Timbo, explains that to benefit from his release, Mahamadou Camara had to pay a deposit of 500 million CFA francs (750,000 euros), in the form of ten titles land. He had been imprisoned for a year and a half. In the entourage of the former Minister of Communication and former chief of staff, with the rank of minister, of the late President IBK, it is specified that the provisional release, without any restriction of movement, had been obtained last June, but that its effectiveness was delayed by an appeal and then by a request for a second opinion of the land titles, issued by the Attorney General of the Supreme Court.
” We haven’t come halfway says a relative of Mahamadou Camarabecause what counts for him is to be exonerated. “And to continue:” he remained to face justice, because he has nothing to reproach himself for, and they want to make him pay instead of the others. The Attorney General of the Supreme Court also indicates that “ the judicial investigation follows its course (…) in strict compliance with the presumption of innocence (…) and the rights of the defence. »
The former Minister of the Economy Bouaré Fily Sissoko, imprisoned since August 2021, could also benefit from a release, but she did not pay the 500 million CFA francs and therefore remains in prison. “ We don’t have them, but in any case, it’s a matter of principlecomments a close friend of the former minister. Why pay when the prosecution is unable to provide evidence? She wants a public trial to clear her honor and does not understand why it takes so long. »
Mahamadou Camara and Bouaré Fily Sissoko are being prosecuted as part of a Malian justice investigation into two cases of embezzlement of public funds dating from 2014: the purchase of the presidential plane and overcharged military equipment contracts, in 2014 This is the same procedure under which the former Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maïga, died in detention a year agowas himself prosecuted.
Other personalities, politicians and businessmen in particular, are targeted. Refugees abroad, international arrest warrants have been issued against them by the Malian justice. The Attorney General of the Supreme Court of Mali also deplores, in his press release, that these warrants have not been executed by the courts concerned. According to several lawyers, this non-execution is explained by the lack of guarantees for the defendants to obtain a fair and equitable trial.
► Read also Mali: former minister Mahamadou Camara imprisoned