Malian justice on Friday June 5 sentenced a French intelligence agent with diplomatic status, in detention for nearly 10 months in Bamako, to twenty years in prison for “endangering state security”, with Paris denouncing “unfounded accusations”.
The Frenchman, arrested in August 2025 and then accused of conspiracy against the institutions of the Sahelian country, led by a junta at odds with France, is also subject to a 20-year ban on staying in Mali and must pay a fine of €5,400, said a judicial source, confirmed by two other judicial sources.
The trial took place on Thursday before the criminal chamber of the specialized counter-terrorism unit and the judgment was announced on Friday, according to the same sources, who spoke anonymously for security reasons. One of them indicated that the trial was held behind closed doors.
The Frenchman, identified as Yann V., was arrested on August 13, 2025 during an operation carried out by State Security (SE), the Malian intelligence services. Officially assigned to the French embassy in Bamako, the French officer was arrested in the company of several officers of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa). The latter, since removed, have still not been tried. They are accused of having set up a network of espionage and conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the institutions of the Malian transition with a view to perpetrating a coup d’état.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had at the time denounced “unfounded accusations” and requested the “release without delay” of its national. In response to the arrest of its agent, France also, in the following days, suspended its anti-terrorism cooperation with Mali and ordered two Malian diplomats to leave its territory.
On Friday, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs again rejected “unfounded accusations” in reacting to the announcement of the judgment. “France’s position on this situation has been constant since the arrest of our agent and remains unchanged,” assured the French ministry. “The arrest, on August 13, 2025, of our diplomatic agent duly accredited to the Republic of Mali, his detention as well as his trial represent a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention (which codifies international practices) to which the Republic of Mali is a party,” he added.
Paris seeks a “quick exit”
According to the French ministry, his agent “is the subject of legal proceedings including” unfounded accusations and “all means are being implemented to find a rapid solution to this case”. He reaffirms that the French agent “carried out a security cooperation mission and in no case did France participate, directly or indirectly, in the destabilization of Mali”.
Faced since 2012 with a deep security crisis fueled in particular by the violence of jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organization, as well as community criminal groups, Mali is led by a military junta that came to power after two coups in 2020 and 2021.
The authorities in Bamako have since turned away from their Western partners, notably the former colonizer France, to turn politically and militarily towards Russia. The West African Sahelian country faces a critical security situation after attacks carried out on April 25 and 26 by jihadists from the JNIM ((Support Group for Islam and Muslims) allied to the rebellion of the Tuareg-dominated Azawad Liberation Front (FLA).
These coordinated attacks, on an unprecedented scale, targeted strategic positions of the junta in several regions. They notably cost the life of Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara, 47, one of the pillars of the junta, killed in a suicide attack.
