{"id":323559,"date":"2026-01-31T11:24:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=323559"},"modified":"2026-01-31T11:24:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:24:47","slug":"mali-lawmaker-jailed-in-ivory-coast-for-insulting-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=323559","title":{"rendered":"Mali lawmaker jailed in Ivory Coast for insulting president"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table aligncenter\"><table><tbody><tr><td><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/560\/56080777.jpg\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Mamadou Hawa Gassama, seen here on a demonstration in 2018, is known for his outspokenness\"><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><figcaption><strong><em>Hawa Gassama, seen here on a demonstration in 2018, is known for his outspokenness<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"article-123\">ABIDJAN, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; A Malian lawmaker has been jailed in neighbouring Ivory Coast for three years for insulting the 84-year-old Ivorian leader, who recently won a fourth term in office.<br><br>Mamadou Hawa Gassama, who serves in the transitional parliament set up by Mali&#8217;s junta, was arrested last July while on a trip to Ivory Coast.<br><br>Prosecutors said he described President Alassane Ouattara as a &#8220;tyrant&#8221;, &#8220;an enemy of Mali&#8221; and strongly criticised his leadership in interviews and on social media.<br><br>Since Mali&#8217;s military took power in 2020, relations with Ivory Coast have been strained. Ouattara, an ally of France &#8211; the former colonial power in both nations &#8211; has been critical of the takeover and other coups in West Africa.<br><br>Since the Malian politician&#8217;s arrest in Abidjan last July, the authorities in Bamako have not commented on the case.<br><br>&#8220;We believe that this decision is&#8230; excessive&#8230; it is very severe,&#8221; Gassama&#8217;s lawyer Mamadou Ismaila Konate said.<br><br>Prosecutors argued that Gassama&#8217;s remarks went beyond political critique, accusing him of deliberately seeking to undermine Ivorian institutions and sow discord between the two neighbours.<br><br>It is a reminder of the diplomatic row that blew up two years after the coup, when 49 Ivorian soldiers were sentenced in Mali to 20 years in prison for undermining state security.<br><br>At the time Ivory Coast denied the allegation and said they had been sent to Mali as part of a UN mission fighting militant Islamists. They were freed after mediation efforts led by Togo.<br><br>Since then, Mali&#8217;s military leaders have overseen the exit of the UN peacekeeping mission and French forces, which had deployed to Mali in 2013 to help deal with an escalating jihadist insurgency.<br><br>Instead it has sought closer ties with Russia &#8211; and Russian mercenaries have been brought in to deal with the insecurity affecting several countries in the vast Sahel region. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hawa Gassama, seen here on a demonstration in 2018, is known for his outspokenness ABIDJAN, Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; A Malian lawmaker has been jailed in neighbouring Ivory Coast for three years for insulting the 84-year-old Ivorian leader, who recently won a fourth term in office. Mamadou Hawa Gassama, who serves in the transitional parliament [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":323561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323559"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323562,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323559\/revisions\/323562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/323561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}