Mali: United Nations (UN) experts call for immediate and unconditional release of three political activists, urge specialised medical care

UN consultants* at this time known as for the rapid and unconditional launch of political activists Moulaye Baba Haïdara, Mahamoud Mohamed Mangane and Amadou Togola to allow them to obtain medical remedy following torture and merciless, inhuman or degrading remedy sustained throughout their detention by the Malian Safety Companies.

“We’re alarmed by medical and different reviews suggesting that Haïdara, Mangane and Togola had been subjected to torture and merciless remedy throughout their detention on the Agence nationale de la Sécurité d’Etat (ANSE),” the consultants mentioned.

The three political detainees are members of the African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence Get together (SADI) and the Motion for Peace in Mali (MPPM). In 2023, the latter known as on its activists to display in opposition to the draft structure initiated by the Malian transitional authorities, which was lastly adopted by referendum and promulgated on 22 July 2023. Within the context of this peaceable protest motion, sure militants thought of to be leaders of the motion had been subjected to intimidation and direct threats by brokers of the Malian Nationwide Intelligence Service (Agence Nationale de la Sécurité d’Etat, ANSE). Underneath the 2021 Ordinance establishing the ANSE, the company reviews on to the President of the Republic. In accordance with the identical Ordinance, ANSE brokers can’t be prosecuted for acts carried out within the efficiency of their duties, besides within the case of significant offences ensuing from negligence or flagrant violation of procedures.

Haïdara, Mangane and Togola had been allegedly kidnapped by ANSE brokers on 25 Could, 26 Could and 23 June 2023 respectively, after which held incommunicado and in inhuman situations on the ANSE premises till October 2023, after they had been transferred to Bamako’s central jail, the Maison Centrale d’Arrêt de Bamako.

“Haïdara, Mangane and Togola have the best to pressing medical care and Mali has an obligation underneath worldwide legislation to facilitate this proper,” the consultants mentioned.

Throughout their detention on the ANSE, Haïdara, Mangane and Togola had been allegedly subjected to acts of torture and merciless, inhuman or degrading remedy, together with flogging and bodily scarification (electrocution of Mr Mangane’s testicles), which prompted extreme bodily and psychological struggling intentionally inflicted by the investigators in an effort to make them confess to the acts of which they had been accused.

After their switch to Bamako’s Central Jail (the Maison Centrale d’Arrêt de Bamako), Haïdara, Mangane and Togola had been examined by the jail physician, who licensed that every one three detainees required specialised medical care.

On 29 July 2024, Haïdara, Mangane and Togola filed an software with the African Court docket on Human and Peoples’ Rights in opposition to the Republic of Mali. On 29 October 2024, the Court docket issued an order on provisional measures, requesting Mali to droop the detention warrants issued in opposition to the candidates and launch them in order that they might search the specialised remedy they wanted.

“We urge the Malian authorities to adjust to the order of the African Court docket on Human and Folks’s Rights in order that they’ll obtain the specialised medical remedy they want. We additionally name for the immediate overview of their instances, seemingly introduced in opposition to them in retaliation for his or her train of freedom of expression, and for his or her rapid launch if the costs are discovered unsubstantiated.”

“This case displays the persistent and escalating sample of human rights violations in opposition to members of opposition political events, civil society organisations, journalists and human rights defenders in Mali,” the consultants mentioned, recalling that a number of mandate holders had expressed related considerations in 2021 and 2024.

The consultants have written to the Authorities of Mali and are ready for a reply.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Workplace of the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).