11 Mali opposition leaders released after 6 months of detention

BAMAKO,  Mali 

A Malian court has freed 11 opposition leaders who were arrested in June on charges of plotting against the ruling military after calling for a return to civilian rule.

Their provisional release on Friday was seen as an attempt to calm the country's political climate following the controversial appointment of General Abdoulaye Maiga as prime minister.

Mali has been ruled by the military since the junta seized power in 2020 and staged another coup the following year.

The 11 people were arrested on June 20 at an "illegal" meeting held during a period when all political party activities were banned. They were accused of plotting against the junta after signing a statement in March calling on the military to relinquish power.

"The 11 comrades of the platform of political parties and associations of the Declaration of March 31 have been free since yesterday ," declared on Friday the former Malian minister Djiguiba Keita , whose Party for National Renaissance (Parena), an opposition party, is a signatory of the declaration.

"This release is the result of a process that we initiated to ask the authorities to release our comrades as part of the easing of the political climate in the country ," he told The Associated Press.

Issa Togo, a member of the Adema PASJ party and a former member of the National Assembly, said the 11 "are free to resume their political activities and to travel . "

Several other political leaders and civil society activists remain imprisoned in Mali, including Issa Kaou N'Djim , former vice-president of the National Transitional Council, the legislative body of Mali's transition, and economist Etienne Fakaba Sissoko .

Both have criticized the military regimes of the three countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger ).

Abdoulaye Maïga was appointed prime minister in November, the day after junta leader General Assimi Goita ousted Choguel Maïga (no relation), a civilian prime minister who had criticized the junta for postponing a presidential election scheduled for 2024.