Mali Frees Hunger-Striking Soldiers
Thirty-two Malian soldiers arrested with ex-junta chief Amadou Sanogo have been freed six weeks after their arrest, one of their lawyers said on Friday.
The soldiers had been denied visits from friends or family, and had been on hunger strike for three days before their release on Thursday, Tiesolo Konare told Agence France Presse.
The group had been appointed by the government to work for Sanogo just two weeks before all were arrested, Konare said, and were freed on a decision by Defense Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga.
"The 32 were not even presented before a judge, much less given trials," he told Agence France Presse.
Tiesolo said he had filed a complaint on behalf of the soldiers for kidnap.
"Fortunately it all ended well because they were released yesterday at 6:00 pm (1800 GMT) according to a decision by the defense minister," he added.
A military source confirmed their release, without giving details.
Sanogo, leader of a March 22, 2012 coup which overthrew democratically-elected president Amadou Toumani Toure, is accused of complicity in kidnappings, according to the government.
But a source close to the judge in the case told AFP the charges also include murder, complicity to murder and carrying out kidnappings.
Sanogo's coup toppled what had been heralded as one of west Africa's most stable democracies and precipitated a crisis in which al-Qaida-linked groups seized control of the country's north before a French-led military intervention forced them out.
On April 30 last year, a group of red berets loyal to Toure staged a failed counter-coup in which about 20 of them were killed by Sanogo's "green berets". Their bodies were never found.
In the months that followed the coup, Sanogo's then-headquarters in the central town of Kati were the scene of abuses and killings carried out against soldiers seen as loyal to Toure.
Source: Agence France Presse
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