In Mali, the deliberation expected in one of the two legal proceedings against the economist Etienne Fakaba Sissoko was to be rendered last week. Finally, the Malian justice decided to reopen the debates.
Etienne Fakaba Sissoko is in particular prosecuted for having made “remarks tending to stigmatization or religious discrimination”. Etienne Fakaba Sissoko had criticized the holding of a civil service competition and that of the National Assembly for Refoundation, organized by the transitional government, at Christmas, believing that in a secular state, the choice of this period was detrimental to Christians of Mali.
But his lawyer believes that it is above all his media positions on the harmful consequences for Mali of the economic sanctions of ECOWAS that have earned him these suits described as “political”.
The court of Commune IV of Bamako therefore finally decided to lower the deliberation, that is to say to reopen the debates, in order to add a document to the file. A situation that Etienne Fakaba Sissoko’s lawyer, Maître Ibrahim Marouf Sacko, does not understand.
” This is a document that had been added to the file since the preliminary investigation, but which did not appear there during the judgment of April 13. The content of the document was not disputed, the judge acceded to our request, he continued the debates, we debated, we pleaded the case and we put it under advisement. So it is surprising that today, we see the deliberation turned down for these reasons. It’s not justified. We believe that the reason must be sought elsewhere. Me, I cannot say what is sought, I am not in the secret of the gods, I do not know, but this flap is not technically justified. »
Maître Ibrahim Marouf Sacko, lawyer for Etienne Fakaba Sissoko
The next hearing is scheduled for June 1.