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Former Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga was arrested Thursday as part of a corruption investigation, said his lawyer Kassoum Tapo.
Maiga, 67, was a close ally of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was overthrown in a coup by strongman Colonel Assimi Goita in August last year.
A member of the Supreme Court, who requested anonymity, told AFP that Maiga had been arrested as part of a judicial investigation for “damage to public property”.
He is questioned in connection with the alleged fraudulent purchase of a presidential plane in 2014, when Maiga was Minister of Defense.
The Malian government auditor investigated the purchase and found officials embezzled public money by overcharging the plane – paying the equivalent of around 30.5 million euros (36 million euros). dollars).
Maiga recently announced that he had been cleared of any involvement in the case.
However, Mali’s Supreme Court prosecutor Mamadou Timbo contradicted the former prime minister on Tuesday, saying in a television interview that Maiga was still a person of interest.
Timbo explained that a predecessor of his “old regime” had been tasked with closing the case but that a later administration reopened it.
“There is nothing more dangerous for the health of a republic than impunity”, he declared.
“Big shake”
A senior Malian official, who declined to be named, suggested that many other prominent figures could be involved in the aircraft corruption investigation.
“This could be the start of a big upheaval,” he said.
Maiga, who also served as foreign minister and head of the intelligence service, is said to have good relations with the Malian security establishment and has been accused of funding pro-state militias.
Malian. By (AFP) He was appointed Keita’s prime minister in 2017, but resigned in April 2019 following a massacre in the center of the country that left 160 people dead.
Mali is struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that first emerged in the north, before spreading to the center of the country and to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced in the conflict, crippling an already impoverished country.
Army officers led by Goita deposed Keita last year after weeks of protests over his failure to defeat the jihadists and anger over alleged government corruption.
The military strongman has vowed to restore civilian rule and hold elections in February next year.
However, there are doubts whether the government will be able to hold elections in such a short time frame in the shadow of widespread violence across Mali.
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