A Malian lawmaker has been sentenced to three years in prison in neighbouring Ivory Coast for insulting the country’s president, Alassane Ouattara, who recently secured a fourth term in office at the age of 84.
Mamadou Hawa Gassama, a member of Mali’s transitional parliament established by the ruling military junta, was arrested in July last year while visiting Ivory Coast. Prosecutors said he referred to President Ouattara as a “tyrant” and an “enemy of Mali,” and sharply criticised his leadership in interviews and on social media platforms.
Relations between Mali and Ivory Coast have been tense since Mali’s military seized power in a 2020 coup. President Ouattara, a close ally of France — the former colonial power in both countries — has openly criticised the coup in Mali as well as similar military takeovers elsewhere in West Africa.
Since Gassama’s arrest in Abidjan, Malian authorities in Bamako have remained publicly silent on the case.
“We believe that this decision is excessive and extremely severe,” Gassama’s lawyer, Mamadou Ismaila Konate, told AFP news agency.
Prosecutors argued that the lawmaker’s comments went beyond legitimate political criticism, accusing him of intentionally attempting to undermine Ivorian institutions and fuel diplomatic tensions between the two neighbouring states.
The case has revived memories of a major diplomatic crisis two years after Mali’s coup, when 49 Ivorian soldiers were sentenced in Mali to 20 years in prison on charges of undermining state security. Ivory Coast rejected the accusations, saying the soldiers were in Mali as part of a UN mission combating Islamist militants. They were later released following mediation led by Togo.
Since then, Mali’s military rulers have overseen the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers and French forces, which had been deployed in 2013 to counter a growing jihadist insurgency.
In their place, Mali has moved closer to Russia, allowing Russian mercenaries to operate in the country as insecurity continues to spread across the wider Sahel region.
