The Malian judiciary has sentenced to 20 years in prison 46 soldiers from neighboring Ivory Coast who were arrested at Bamako airport in July after being accused by the military junta of being «mercenaries».
The Bamako Court of Appeal also ordered the defendants to pay a fine of two million francs for the crimes of attacking the government, attacking state security and transporting arms or ammunition with the aim of «disturbing public order».
On the other hand, the Malian justice has condemned to death for the same offenses, but in absentia, three Ivorian soldiers released last September, according to the news portal aBamako.
Ivory Coast assured that the soldiers were in Mali «as part of the operations of the logistics of the national support elements» to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
For his part, MINUSMA spokesman Olivier Salgado said that the detained soldiers «were not part of one of the MINUSMA contingents.» «These soldiers have been deployed for years in Mali as part of a logistical support on behalf of one of our contingents,» he stressed.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
