BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s Supreme Court prosecutor has issued an international arrest warrant for ex-Prime Minister Boubou Cissé and several other ministers of the former government of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was overthrown by the military junta in August 2020.

The move likely is being made to prevent these political figures from being candidates in presidential elections scheduled for February 2024.

The warrant, announced late Thursday, is dated from Monday and includes Cisse, as well as the former finance minister, minister of national defense and others.

The statement signed by Attorney General Mamoudou Timbo says the Supreme Court of Mali is looking for these politicians in the context of “the opening by the Investigating Chamber of the Supreme Court of Mali of a judicial inquiry into facts qualified as crimes of forgery and use of forgeries, damage to public property and complicity in these offenses.”

These former ministers are now living in exile in Niger and Ivory Coast, two countries which have tense relations with the transitional government.

Cisse was held by the junta when they overthrew and detained former president Keita. He was then released, re-arrested some months later on accusations of an attempted coup and then released again for an error in the procedures for his arrest.

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