Mali sentences 46 Ivory Coast soldiers to 20 years in prison

A court in Mali has sentenced 46 soldiers from Ivory Coast to 20 years’ imprisonment for conspiring against the government, and three others to death in absentia.

The soldiers were also fined more than $3,000 and convicted of carrying and transporting weapons, Prosecutor General Ladji Sara said in a statement on Friday.

Forty-nine Ivorian soldiers were arrested at the airport in Mali’s capital Bamako in July, three of whom were later released. Their arrests led to a diplomatic row between the neighbouring countries and widespread condemnation from regional allies.

The soldiers were detained when they went to work for Sahel Aviation Service, a private company contracted to work in Mali by the United Nations.

Mali’s military administration said the soldiers were acting as mercenaries, while Ivory Coast said they were part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

They were charged with attempting to undermine state security in August and convicted in a trial that began on Thursday and ended on Friday, ahead of a January 1 deadline set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the region’s main political and economic bloc, to release them or face sanctions.

One of Africa’s most volatile countries, Mali has for a decade relied on regional allies and peacekeepers to contain rebels who have killed thousands of people and taken over large areas of the central and northern regions.

Mali has little to gain from antagonising a key neighbour, said Alexander Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.

“The junta is compounding its isolation and adding to the likelihood that (the UN peacekeeping mission) will collapse,” he said.