Ex-Mali Spy Boss Charged Over Journalist’s Disappearance

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ADDS comment from Reporters Without Borders

Former Malian spy chief Moussa Diawara has been charged and detained as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a journalist in 2016, legal and security sources said on Thursday.

A legal official said that Diawara, who headed the West African state’s intelligence services under ex-president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, has been charged over his alleged involvement in the disappearance of journalist Birama Toure.

Diawara was being held in the capital Bamako, according to a source in the gendarmerie.

His detention comes after Malian investigators this month requested an arrest warrant for Keita’s son, Karim Keita, over the same affair.

Toure had been working for the Bamako weekly Le Sphinx in the months before his disappearance in 2016, and had reportedly been chasing a story that would have damaged Keita’s reputation.

Keita, who has lived in Ivory Coast since his father was overthrown in a military coup in August last year, has always denied any role in Toure’s disappearance.

On Thursday, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) tweeted that Diawara’s arrest constituted a “turning point” after “years of indifference”.

It added that it wanted the arrest of all suspects in the case. Early this month, RSF called on Karim Keita to reveal what he knows about the Toure affair.

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The Barron’s news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This story was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.© Agence France-Presse