Minister Kassogué seized the Superior Council of the Judiciary – Info-Matin

2023-04-25 14:41:51

The Minister of Justice, Mamadou KASSOGUE, has requested investigations against officials of the Reference Syndicale des Magistrats and the Malian Association of Prosecutors and Prosecutors, namely Cheick Mohamed Chérif KONE and Dramane DIARRA, who had previously refused to Respond to the summons of the judicial services for violation of the laws. For these actors in question, their actions are not out of phase with Malian positive law.

The standoff between magistrates continues. After the failure of the judicial services to hear officials from the Syndicate Reference of Magistrates in this case Cheick Mohamed Chérif KONE and Dramane DIARRA, it is the Minister of Justice who in a press release decides on the situation.
To this end, he recalled that for several weeks, certain actors of the justice system, magistrates and lawyers, have been indulging in untimely media releases contrary to their status and swearing by the elementary rules of ethics, in particular the obligation of reserve and the duty of restraint in violation of the law.
Despite the warnings, particularly in the Issa Kaou N’DJIM case, Minister KASSOGUE regretted, some magistrates continue to actively campaign in the political arena, sheltering behind a syndicate of magistrates, in this case “la Référence Syndicale of Magistrates” and an Association called “Malian Association of Prosecutors and Prosecutors” (AMPP), participate in the political activities of a group of fundamentally political organizations and bearer of demands of an absolutely political nature called “Appeal of February 20, 2023”.

Investigations against Chérif and Dramane
“These magistrates whose behavior is at odds with all the rules of ethics that govern the state of magistrates, even dared to take the head of this political group with the post of general coordinator assigned to the named Cheick Mohamed Chérif KONE, President of the Syndicate Reference of Magistrates”, denounced the Minister of Justice.
According to him, the active participation of magistrates in this grouping, even with trade union cover, is not in conformity with the ethics and professional conduct of this profession and violates articles 19 and 20 of the code of conduct, 71 of the Law of December 16, 2002 on the status of the judiciary.
It is in view of the seriousness of these acts and the behaviors mentioned, the Minister of Justice affirmed to have instructed the Inspectorate of Judicial Services to open investigations into the actions of these magistrates which are likely to constitute professional misconduct , disciplinary or criminal.
At the end of these investigations, the two magistrates implicated refused to respond to the summonses sent to them by the Chief Inspector of the Judicial Services.
“These facts are likely to constitute the offense of opposition to the legitimate authority provided for and punished by the provisions of article 84 of the Penal Code”, declared Minister KASSOGUE.
Furthermore, following up on the facts noted in the inspection report, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights informs the public that he has not only seized the Superior Council of the Judiciary for the opening of a disciplinary investigation but also that he ordered the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal of Bamako to open a judicial investigation against the above-named for opposition to legitimate authority and any other offenses that the investigations will uncover.
Reply to Minister KASSOGUE
Responses from AMPP and REFSYMA will not be long in coming. Also in a document of which we have received a copy, the two organizations of magistrates respond to the Minister of Justice.
“The AMPP and the REFSYMA convinced that none of their leaders has violated either a criminal provision or a rule of ethics or judicial deontology, even less the duty of reserve of the magistrate in the present situation, n “do not intend to bend to the excesses of a very biased minister who has shown his limits, refuse to be intimidated in the legal exercise of their freedom of expression, association and assembly guaranteed by the constitution”, replied de their side the two organizations of magistrates in a press release signed by Cheick Mohamed Chérif KONE.
By seizing the Superior Council of the Judiciary for a disciplinary investigation, Mr. KONE believes that the Minister, in a process of restoring his image, can claim to initiate him lightly on a crush “to satisfy the whims of a few princes of the day “.
Moreover, in defending their refusal to respond to the judicial services, the magistrate by Cheick Mohamed Chérif KONE invites the Minister to prove that the refusal to respond to an invitation from an unauthorized authority would constitute an offense in the Malian penal code. .
To this end, they challenge the minister to produce a single summons from any legitimate authority that has not been answered by one of their leaders or members.
Also, the release of the AMPP and REFSYMA denounces the double standard of Minister KASSOGUE for having intervened in the political field.
The latter, the organizations maintain, would authorize groups of magistrates to join forces with political power to publicly support a manifestly illegal and retrograde draft constitution which calls into question the independence of the judiciary, and which would at the same time decide to reduce to the silence, in the name of the duty of reserve of others having contrary positions for obvious reasons relating to the duty of the magistrate.
The AMPP and the REFSYMA say that they openly dissociate themselves from this ongoing enterprise since the so-called rectification transition, tending to make the judicial institution an organ of the transition, and to make magistrates secular arms of repression of voices demanding a return to constitutional order, in accordance with the transition charter and the oath solemnly taken by the president of the transition before the sovereign people.
To this end, the AMPP and the REFSYMA are not out of phase with the duty of reserve of the magistrate by associating with other components of the nation to defend the constitutional legality and the republican form of the State, which considerations cannot be reduced to purely political questions.

BY SIKOU BAH