The World Today
MADRID, 19 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Supreme Court of Mali has remanded former transitional Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga (2021-2024) in custody after appearing in a case alleging embezzlement of public funds.
His lawyer, Cheick Omar Konaré, explained that the court had notified him of the charges of embezzlement of public funds brought against him in the Attorney General's indictment and ordered his preventive detention, after he had been held in police custody from August 12 to 19 at the Economic and Financial Center.
"He refutes the charges, appears calm, and believes that a politician should expect anything, even prison and death," Konaré said in a brief statement posted on his Facebook profile.
Maiga was removed from office in mid-November last year due to his criticism of the military junta's repeated postponements of elections, which were promised within two years following the August 2020 coup, followed by another coup in 2021 to overthrow the then transitional authorities.
The former prime minister, who was appointed by the junta after the 2021 coup, claimed that the extensions were being announced without his knowledge and after being negotiated behind his back, in a further demonstration of the differences within the authorities and the power of the military in the African country.
