MALI’S former Prime Minister, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, who was dismissed in November 2024 after criticising the country’s ruling junta, was on Tuesday, August 19, charged with embezzlement of public funds and placed in custody following a hearing at the Supreme Court.
The ICIR reports that Maiga was taken into custody last week, soon after the junta initiated a series of arrests to foil an alleged plot within the military to overthrow the government.
Maiga’s lawyer, Cheick Oumar Konare, revealed in a statement that his client faced charges of “embezzlement of public funds,” noting that no trial date had been scheduled.
“We believe in justice, we are calm while awaiting the trial,” Konare said, explaining that Maiga would remain in prison.
“Choguel Maiga says he is calm and believes that a politician should expect anything, including prison and death,” Konare added.
Confirming the embezzlement charge, a judicial source told journalists that Maiga was specifically accused of “misappropriation of public property, forgery, and the use of falsified documents.”
Plagued by jihadist and separatist unrest, Mali has been under military rule since successive coups in 2020 and 2021.
The junta led by President Assimi Goita has distanced itself from Western allies, particularly former colonial power France, while forging political and military ties with Russia.
Appointed after the second coup in 2021, Maiga was dismissed after openly criticising the lack of clarity on when the military planned to relinquish power in the West African nation.
Maiga’s dismissal in November 2024 seemed to confirm that the Army, which had reneged on its pledge to return power to civilians by the end of March 2024, was further tightening its grip on the nation.
Mali’s junta replaced the civilian prime minister with Abdoulaye Maiga, a general, the country’s former government spokesperson.
The ICIR reports that since 2012, impoverished Mali has been engulfed in a security crisis driven by violence from Al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates, along with local criminal gangs.
The national Army and its Russian allies are often accused of carrying out atrocities against civilians, while the junta has intensified its crackdown on dissents amid escalating jihadist violence.
In July, the military-appointed legislature passed a bill granting Goita a five-year presidential term, renewable “as many times as necessary” without the need for elections.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.