Tuesday marks the eight-year anniversary of the deaths of RFI journalist Ghislaine Dupont, and Claude Verlon, audio engineer, who were murdered after they were kidnapped while reporting in Kidal in northern Mali. Their deaths also mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.
Although Barkhane French forces killed Baye Ag Bakabo, one of the kidnappers in June, the investigation into their deaths continues, as there are many grey areas in which information is still being sought.
The assassination of Dupont and Verlon was claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. It is now known that four people abducted them a few kilometres outside Kidal. Only one kidnapper who was there that day is still alive.
New focus on finding answers
Judicial investigators have interviewed new people over the course of this year in an effort to put the whole story together. The have also received new leads in the case.
They have made a number of requests for action by civil parties, who are asking for new hearings and access to certain documents. However, the ongoing investigation has been conducted primarily in secret, due to the sensitivity of the case.
International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists was proclaimed by the @UN General Assembly in commemoration of French journalists Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont killed in Mali on 2 November 2013 | #PressFreedom | @IFEX @RSF_en @globalfreemedia @caj | 🇺🇳 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/Yr5AVz9WAK
— Clayton Rice, Q.C. (@WiretapLawyer) November 2, 2021
After repeated requests over a number of years to get phone tapes, telecoms operator Malitel has released the tapes to the French judge looking into the case.
French investigators at DGSI (French General Directorate of Internal Security) are currently analyzing the records.
Investigators are hoping that once this data is compared to the phones tapes from Mali Orange telecoms operator, they may have a better understanding of the relationships between the actors of the tragedy and establish new complicities, or even responsibilities.
last surviving kidnapper
Focus has turned to Hamadi Ag Mohamed, the last surviving kidnapper who goes by a number of other names: Hamadi Ag Talta, Abou Naghima or Abou Mouzer, according to information collected by the French intelligence services.
-
French army kills top Mali jihadist linked to murder of RFI journalists
-
French MPs call for 'full facts' on RFI journalists' murders in Mali
In 2013, like the other three kidnappers, he was a fighter in the Youssef bin Tachfin katiba, affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and led by Seidane Ag Hitta.
He has since become one of the right-hand men of Iyad Ag Ghaly, leader of the Groupe de soutien à l'Islam et aux Musulmans, but sources have told RFI that Ag Mohamed is still working with AQIM leader Ag Hitta.
A key witness
Civil investigators believe that Moussa Diawara, head of the Malian intelligence services at the time, could shed some light onto the Dupont-Verlon murders.
Although Diawara occupied a high position in the government, the August 2020 coup changed his position in the country. He was arrested in July in connection with the disappearance of Malian journalist Birama Touré in 2016.
A number of high-ranking people knew of the murders before the bodies were found, and investigators believe he could provide context, as well as an insight into who benefitted from the act, as well as an indication as to who betrayed Dupont and Verlon.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of Defense at the time, told the victims' relatives that someone had betrayed them.
They are also hoping that Diawara could give insight into certain wiretaps shared before and after the murders by the French and American services.
There is one in particular that French president François Hollande spoke of in front of a journalist of RFI.
Hollande denied the existence during his convocation in front of the judge in January 2019 and which has never been put in the file despite a request from the French justice.
