[JURIST] General Amadou Haya Sanogo, the leader of the March 2012 coup [JURIST report] that plunged Mali into civil war, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of murder, complicity to murder, assassination and kidnapping. According to one of the arresting soldiers, Sanogo had repeatedly ignored summons [France24 report] by the Malian Ministry of Justice [official website, in French]. Twenty-five armed soldiers arrested Sanogo in his home [BBC report] in Mali’s capital city Bamako and took him to appear before a judge, after which he remained in custody.

Frustrated by an apparent lack of progress in handling Taureg rebellion in northern Mali, Sanogo led Malian soldiers in a military coup in March of 2012 ousting former President Amadou Toumani Toure [Al Jazeera profile]. In the weeks following the coup, Taureg rebels launched a rapid advance, capturing multiple cities within Mali [Al Jazeera report]. The intervention of over four thousand French soldiers [Huffington Post report] in January finally dispatched the Taureg rebels. Although Sanogo assured the international community in April that he would return the country to constitutional rule, multiple advocacy organizations have reported that forces loyal to Sanogo have been abducting and torturing opposition soldiers and journalists [JURIST reports].