Running against ATT a national hero who toppled dictator Moussa Traoré in 1991 then stood aside for a civilian president wasn't easy...
Moussa Traoré was ousted in March 1991...
The probe could lead to a huge repatriation of stolen funds from Switzerland; smaller cash piles stolen by the Mobutu Sese Seko and Moussa Traoré families were returned to Congo-Kinshasa and Mali...
Malian politics have long been a family affair: under dictator Moussa Traoré things were blamed on the FMI - not the French acronym for the International Monetary Fund but short for 'Famille Moussa et intimes' Moussa's family and friends...
The Swiss authorities have already opened up some accounts and Swiss banks have had to disclose information about account-holders such as Mali's Moussa Traoré Nigeria's Abacha and family Gabon's Bongo and family and Zaïre's late Mobutu Sese Seko...
Konaré who celebrated seven years at the Koulouba Palace on 8 June is still admired by Western policy-makers as a visionary democrat who has saved his country from chaos and regional rebellion after the disastrous post-Independence dictatorship of General Moussa Traoré 1968-91...
Maïga who is openly aligned with the imprisoned Moussa Traoré and his pre-1991 single party the Union Démocratique du Peuple Malien scores points with detailed and credible accusations on the electricity mess...
Behind the process has been Mali’s Finance Minister Soumaïla Cissé in the job since 1993 and widely credited with saving his economy from complete ruin after more than two decades of pillage under dictator Moussa Traoré...
Against this background the on-off trial since October for ‘economic crimes’ of former dictator Moussa Traoré has proved a fiasco...
Choguel Maïga aged 43 leads the Mouvement Patriotique pour le Renouveau directly descended from ex-dictator Moussa Traoré's single party of the 1970s- 1980s...
On 8 December it announced that death sentences on Moussa Traoré and others had been commuted on Konaré's personal orders...
Malians hope the cash provides a precedent for the return of funds allegedly embezzled by the still gaoled ex-President Moussa Traoré who was toppled in 1991 and condemned to death in 1992 for 'blood crimes'...
