Former Mali PM Maids Charged With Embezzlement, Remanded in Custody

Mali’s former civilian prime minister, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, has been charged with embezzlement of public funds and ordered into custody following a hearing at the country’s Supreme Court.

The development comes months after Maiga was dismissed from office in November 2024, shortly after he openly criticised the military junta that has ruled the country since successive coups in 2020 and 2021.

His lawyer, Cheick Oumar Konare, confirmed the charge on Tuesday, stressing that no date has yet been set for trial. “We believe in justice, we are calm while awaiting the trial,” Konare told AFP, adding that Maiga will remain in detention.

According to judicial sources, Maiga faces allegations of “damage to public property, forgery, use of false documents” in addition to embezzlement. Eight of his former aides were also detained, while his former chief of staff was released pending trial.

The former premier was arrested last week, days after the junta launched sweeping arrests to foil what it described as an attempted coup within the military. “Choguel Maiga says he is calm and believes that a politician should expect anything, including prison and death,” his lawyer added in a statement.

Maiga, who was appointed prime minister in 2021 after the junta’s second coup, lost his position three years later when he publicly criticised the regime’s failure to set a clear timetable for a return to civilian rule. His removal deepened concerns that the army was entrenching itself further in power.

The junta swiftly replaced him with General Abdoulaye Maiga, a former government spokesman.

Mali, one of the poorest nations in West Africa, has faced a worsening security crisis since 2012, with armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State carrying out relentless attacks alongside criminal gangs. The regime of Colonel Assimi Goita has increasingly turned away from Western allies such as France and forged closer ties with Russia, whose forces have been accused alongside Malian troops of committing atrocities against civilians.

In July, a new law passed by the military-backed legislature handed Goita a five-year presidential mandate — renewable “as many times as necessary” without elections — a move widely viewed as consolidating authoritarian rule.