Mali government announces it plans to investigate ex-president for treason

DAKAR, Senegal – The government of Mali announced in a statement that it plans to investigate the country's toppled president for "high treason."

Amadou Toumani Toure was forced from power when soldiers led a March 2012 coup, pushing out the democratically elected leader just months before he was due to step down. He was accused of having allowed corruption to spread like a cancer over the organs of state, especially the military, whose rank-and-file soldiers were left fighting al-Qaida militants without proper equipment .

Government spokesman Mahamane Baby said on TV late Friday that Toure will be investigated for among other things, "his participation in an exercise to demoralize the army by naming incompetent officers and soldiers, whose patriotism was questionable, to high-level posts to the detriment of others who were more meritorious."