🔴 Mali pardons French official Yann ​Vézilier, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison

Mali's junta chief granted a presidential pardon Thursday to a French intelligence agent working at the country's embassy, who was accused of being a spy and ordered to serve 20 years in jail. At the time of the agent's arrest a year ago, Malian authorities accused Yann ​Vézilier of conspiring against the country, which is ruled by a junta that has severed ties with France. Read moreFrench diplomat in Mali sentenced to 20 years in prison for 'undermining state security' The Malian government said in a statement posted to Facebook that the clemency "does not call into question the facts established by an adversarial judgment rendered during a trial". It added that there would be "immediate removal of the individual from national territory". The agent was sentenced in June in a blow to relations between the West African nation, ruled by a junta since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, and former colonial ruler France. Under General Assimi Goïta's leadership, the country has turned its back on the West, especially France, in favour of closer ties with Russia. The gesture of clemency demonstrated Goïta's "commitment to peace and dialogue, as well as to the ancestral values of forgive...