On August 1, 2026, Moussa Mara, Mali’s former prime minister and current president of the opposition party Yéléma, was released from prison after serving a one-year jail sentence.
He was charged on August 1, 2025, with two counts of “undermining the credibility of the State” and “resisting lawful authority”, under articles 242 and 552 of the Malian Penal Code of 2024, Law No. 2024-027.
Moussa was arrested after making a post on X (formerly twitter) on July 4, 2025 expressing his “unwavering solidarity with prisoners of conscience”, following his visit to detained critics of the government.
He was remanded in custody for nearly three months before being sentenced to two years in prison on October 27, 2025, by the National Cybercrime Unit in Bamako.One year of the sentence was to be served while the other year was to be suspended. He was also fined of CFA francs 500,000 for “undermining the credibility of the State” and “resisting lawful authority.”
While the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) welcomes the release of Moussa Mara, we condemn his imprisonment for exercising his freedom of expression rights. The MFWA also condemns the government’s resort to using cybercrime-related laws to detain and jail journalists and voices of dissent for being critical of the government.
We call on the Malian government to release journalists Chahana Takiou, Abdramane Keïta, and Youssouf Sissoko, who are in prison for simply doing their work as journalists.
