Mali hands French intelligence agent 20-year prison term, Paris rejects charges

Diplomacy – A French intelligence officer under diplomatic cover, held for nearly 10 months in Bamako, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for ‘undermining state security’.

On Friday, Mali’s judiciary sentenced a French intelligence agent who had been detained since August 2025 to two decades behind bars. The officer, who held diplomatic status, was found guilty of ‘undermining state security’. Paris immediately dismissed the charges as ‘baseless’.

The French national, arrested in August 2025 and initially accused of conspiring against the institutions of the Sahelian country now led by a junta at odds with France, also received a 20-year ban from entering Mali and was ordered to pay a fine of 5,400 euros, according to three judicial sources.

Trial held behind closed doors

The trial took place on Thursday before the criminal chamber of the specialised counter-terrorism unit, with the verdict delivered on Friday. One of the sources confirmed that proceedings were held behind closed doors.

The Frenchman, identified as Yann V., was apprehended on 13 August 2025 during an operation carried out by the State Security (SE), Mali’s intelligence service.

Officially assigned to the French embassy in Bamako, the officer was arrested alongside several officers from the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa).

Those officers, since dismissed from service, have yet to face trial. They are accused of establishing an espionage and conspiracy network aimed at destabilising Mali’s transitional institutions in order to carry out a coup d’état.

The French foreign ministry had at the time described the charges as groundless.