Mali: Three charged over assault of president Dioncounda Traore
Mali’s interim leader Dioncounda Traore is pictured on May 3, 2012 during the opening of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) talks. Traore was reportedly taken to a hospital after being beaten by protesters and suffering from head injuries on May 21, 2012.
In Mali, three men have been charged in connection with last month’s assault on the interim president, Dioncounda Traore, Agence France Presse reported.
Prosecutors said the men – identified as Boubacar Bore, Yacouba Niare and Mamadou Sangare – had been charged with "serious disturbances to public order."
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AFP reports said the men were “members of an association” that was “favorable” to the coup d’etat that ousted Mali’s government in March.
Traore, 70, had been appointed to head a year-long transition under a deal signed by Mali’s military junta and mediated by the west African bloc ECOWAS.
He was physically assaulted by protesters opposed to the deal, who stormed the presidential palace on May 21, Reuters reported.
It is understood that the three men who have been charged were among dozens of people arrested in the wake of the attack.
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Traore has not yet returned to Mali from Paris, where he was treated for his injuries, but the South African Press Association reported that he was expected back in the capital Bamako this week.