Mali: Detention without trial of eight army officers

Major Lamine Diabira, a former government minister, and seven other army officers have been held without trial since their arrest in July 1991. They were charged in June 1993 with conspiracy and attempting to overthrow the government but there appears to have been little progress in bringing the case to court. The delays in bringing them to trial are reportedly due to lack of evidence against them. It has been alleged that Major Lamine Diabira was arrested because he was calling for the prosecution of senior military officers in the former government of General Moussa Traore. The other officers were arrested apparently to lend credibility to the transitional government's claim that there was a plan to overthrow it by force.