Malian justice on Friday sentenced a French intelligence agent with diplomatic status, detained for nearly 10 months in Bamako, to 20 years in prison for "undermining state security", with Paris denouncing "baseless accusations".

The Frenchman, arrested in August 2025 and then accused of conspiracy against the institutions of the Sahelian country, led by a junta that had broken with France, is also subject to a 20-year ban from entering Mali and must pay a fine of 5,400 euros, a judicial source told AFP, a fact confirmed by two other judicial sources.

The trial took place on Thursday before the criminal chamber of the specialized counter-terrorism unit and the verdict was announced on Friday, according to the same sources, who spoke anonymously for security reasons.

One of them told AFP that the trial was held behind closed doors.

The Frenchman, identified as Yann V., was arrested on August 13, 2025 during an operation conducted by the State Security (SE), the Malian intelligence services.

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

These individuals, who have since been dismissed from their positions, have still not been tried. They are accused of having established a network of espionage and conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the institutions of the Malian transition in order to perpetrate a coup d'état.

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time denounced the "unfounded accusations" and demanded the "immediate release" of its national.

In response to the arrest of its agent, France also suspended its anti-terrorist cooperation with Mali in the following days and ordered two Malian diplomats to leave its territory.

On Friday, the French Foreign Ministry again rejected "baseless accusations" in its response to the announcement of the verdict.

"France's position on this situation has been constant since the arrest of our agent and remains unchanged," the French ministry assured.

"The arrest, on August 13, 2025, of our duly accredited diplomatic agent to the Republic of Mali, his detention and his trial represent a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention (which codifies international practices) to which the Republic of Mali is a party," he added.

- Paris is seeking a "quick solution" -

According to the French ministry, its agent "is the subject of legal proceedings including" unfounded accusations and "all means are being used to find a quick resolution to this case".

He reaffirms that the French agent "was carrying out a security cooperation mission and in no way did France participate, directly or indirectly, in the destabilization of Mali".

Confronted since 2012 with a deep security crisis fueled in particular by the violence of jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), as well as community criminal groups, Mali is led by a military junta that came to power after two coups in 2020 and 2021.

The authorities in Bamako have since turned away from their Western partners, particularly the former French colonizer, to turn politically and militarily towards Russia.

The West African Sahelian country is facing a critical security situation after attacks carried out on April 25 and 26 by jihadists from JNIM (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims) allied with the rebellion of the Azawad Liberation Front (ALF), predominantly Tuareg.

These coordinated attacks, unprecedented in scale, targeted strategic positions of the junta in several regions. They notably claimed the life of Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara, 47, a key figure in the junta, who was killed in a suicide bombing.