Mali coup leader's no-show for court hearing sparks anger

Opponents of a coup that embroiled Mali in months of political turmoil voiced anger Wednesday over the failure of its leader to comply with a court summons over alleged violence involving his men. Amadou Sanogo was ordered in October to answer questions before a judge about "the deaths in the last mutiny against him" at his former headquarters in the central town of Kati, and "all violence in recent times" of which his men have been accused. Anti-coup coalition The United Front for Safeguarding Democracy and the Republic (FDR) said it was "deeply outraged" that Sanogo had not responded to the summons. "For several weeks, Captain Sanogo has been piling on the delaying tactics to avoid explaining the serious crimes committed in Kati from the time he reigned supreme there," the FDR said in a statement. "One day he is sick, another day he is supposedly a former head of state," added the FDR, which described itself as "shocked by the apparent complacency which the government is displaying regarding Captain Sanogo, which gives the impression that he is untouchable". Sanogo was controversially promoted from captain to lieutenant-general in August, prompting fellow ex-junta members also seeking promotion to mutiny at his Kati barracks, near the capital Bamako, and forcing the army to intervene. The bodies of three missing soldiers were subsequently discovered in and around the barracks and around 20 officers, including Sanogo's former deputy, were arrested. Sanogo led a group of fellow officers to overthrow then-president Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22 last year, upending what had been considered one of west Africa's flagship democracies. The mutiny precipitated the fall of northern Mali to Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida, but a military intervention by French and African troops in January chased the rebels from the region's main cities. The coup also deepened a schism in the army between the Red Berets, loyal to Toure, and the Green Berets, who were broadly pro-junta. Sanogo was implicated in the disappearances of Red Berets after a failed counter-coup on April 30 last year. In the months that followed the March coup, the Kati barracks was the site of numerous atrocities allegedly committed by his men against military considered loyal to the ousted president. "Who is protecting Captain Sanogo, allowing him to taunt and defy Malian justice? Why is the government powerless to bring before a court a man suspected of having committed, ordered or covered up serious human rights violations?" demanded the FDR.