France welcomes Mali release of intelligence agent

PARIS: France said on Friday it welcomed with “great satisfaction” Mali’s decision to pardon a French intelligence agent serving a 20-year jail term, a rare gesture after years of tensions between the two countries.
“France expresses its great satisfaction following the release of Yann Vezilier,” the foreign ministry said.
“The return of our compatriot to France, to be reunited with his loved ones, is a relief for the foreign ministry, as well as for all his colleagues,” it added.
Vezilier, who had been stationed at the French embassy in Bamako, was arrested a year ago in the West African country on charges of being a spy and undermining state security.
Mali’s junta chief on Thursday pardoned the French agent, in a rare conciliatory gesture after years of tensions with the country’s former colonial ruler.
The sentencing of the agent in June had been a further blow to relations between France and Mali, where a junta has ruled since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.
On Thursday, Mali said that the clemency “does not call into question the facts established by an adversarial judgment rendered during trial.”
France has insisted that the charges against Vezilier are “baseless.”