Bakary Togola and four other co-defendants have each received a 5-year jail term and slapped with 10 million CFA francs in the so-called cotton producer rebate case.

The verdict was handed down Tuesday by the Special Court on Financial and Economic Crimes in Bamako.

Four other accused persons were acquitted after the reclassification of the facts as embezzlement of public property, a decision that did not satisfy Togola’s legal team.

Naa Dedei Tettey has more in this report by WADR’s Bamako correspondent Aliou Thiam.