Mali ex-prime minister to stand trial over social media post, lawyer says

A Malian court has detained and charged former Prime Minister Moussa Mara over a social media post criticising shrinking democratic space under military rule in the West African nation, his lawyer said, 1news.media informs via Reuters.

Mara is one of few public figures in the country who has been willing to openly question moves taken this year to dissolve political parties and grant the military government, led by Assimi Goita, a five-year mandate without elections.

Last month, authorities formally approved Goita's five-year term and said it could be renewed as many times as necessary as Mali struggles to respond to a long-running jihadist insurgency.

Goita assumed power after military coups in 2020 and 2021.

Mara had been summoned several times for questioning this month over a social media post dated July 4 expressing solidarity with government critics who have been jailed.

On July 21, his lawyer, Mountaga Tall, posted on social media site X that Mara had been barred from boarding a flight to Senegal to participate in a regional conference on peace and security.

On Friday, Mara was summoned by a judicial cybercrimes unit, and a prosecutor charged him with offences including undermining the credibility of the state and spreading false information, Tall said in a statement.

Mara's trial has been scheduled for September 29, Tall said.

The case against Mara comes amid worsening insecurity in Mali. The past few months have seen a surge of deadly attacks by Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-linked group that also operates in Burkina Faso and Niger.

Analysts say the group's battlefield tactics have grown increasingly sophisticated and that it has amassed substantial resources through raids on military posts, cattle rustling, hijacking of goods, kidnappings and taxes on local communities.

On Friday, the group said it had ambushed a convoy of Malian soldiers and Russian mercenaries in the Tenenkou locality in central Mali. Mali's army confirmed the ambush in a statement on X. Neither statement gave a death toll.