The Frenchman convicted of espionage in Mali was pardoned by the junta

General Assimi Goïta announced on Thursday the pardon of French national Yann V., who had been sentenced in June to twenty years in prison for endangering state security. He was immediately expelled from Mali.

The Malian junta announced on Thursday, August 13, that it had granted a pardon to the French national identified as Yann V. Sentenced on June 5 to twenty years in prison, this intelligence agent operating under diplomatic status had also been fined 5,400 euros and banned from entering Malian territory for twenty years.

In a statement published on Facebook, the transitional government specifies that this measure "does not call into question the established fact" by the justice system, and that it is "accompanied by the immediate removal of the person concerned from the national territory".

Yann V. was arrested in August 2025 along with several Malian officers suspected of plotting a coup against the junta. Paris firmly rejected the accusations: "Our agent was carrying out a security cooperation mission and in no way did France participate, directly or indirectly, in the destabilization of Mali," the French Foreign Ministry stated at the time of the verdict.

The junta praised, without naming it, a "brother country" whose intervention had facilitated obtaining this pardon, suggesting a possible détente between Bamako and Paris after several years of rupture.

Since Assimi Goïta came to power, Mali has gradually broken with its Western partners in favor of closer ties with Russia. The country has faced a persistent security crisis since 2012, fueled by groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Analysts point out that the situation has worsened since the installation of juntas in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, with a record number of attacks and civilian deaths, attributable to both jihadist groups and government forces.