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Bakary Togola, former president of the Permanent Assembly of Agricultural Chambers of Mali (APCAM) and the Confederation of Cotton Producers’ Cooperatives (C-SCPC), was sentenced on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, to five years in prison and a fine of 10 million CFA francs., The so-called “cotton farmer kickbacks” incident.
After a week-long trial, Bakary Togora was found guilty of “attacking company property”, but he has denied everything since the trial began, claiming that he was the victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by former Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.
The former cotton farmer boss was eventually convicted along with four co-accused. These included Soloba Mady Keïta, Tiassé Coulibaly, Drissa Traoré and Seydou Coulibaly. However, the remaining six defendants were acquitted. They are Mady Keïta, Mamadou Fomba, Gigiba known as Anfa Coulibaly, Jara Moussa Dembélé, Allou Dembélé and Mpié Doumbia.
Bakary Togora and his four convicted co-defendants have the possibility to appeal to the Supreme Court. Moreover, Master Mahamadou Traoré, one of Mr. Togora’s advisors, explained that if the sentence goes ahead, all five criminals will only have to serve one to two years, since they have already been in preventive detention for several years.
It should be reminded that Bakary Togola was acquitted in 2021 after being accused, along with 10 others, of embezzling more than 9 billion CFA francs between 2013 and 2019, of “attacking public property, conspiracy, forgery and use of forged items”.
But in August 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the acquittal and sent the case back to the Special Circuit Court for Economic and Financial Crimes.
Mohamed Kenouwi and Fatouma Cissé (Interns)
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