AFP/Bamako

Amadou Sanogo, who led a March 2012 coup in Mali, was detained yesterday for questioning by a judge investigating alleged abuses committed by his followers.

Several dozen Malian soldiers forcibly entered Sanogo’s residence in central Bamako, escorted him outside and drove him away, an AFP journalist witnessed.

“He was refusing to appear before the judge. So we came to carry out a warrant for his transferral,” one of the soldiers told AFP.

Sanogo led a group of mid-level officers to overthrow then-president Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22 last year, upending what had been considered one of west Africa’s flagship democracies.

The coup precipitated the fall of northern Mali to militants linked to Al Qaeda, but an intervention by French and African troops in January chased the rebels from the region’s main cities.

In May last year, Sanogo and his former junta were granted a general amnesty and the captain received the status of former head of state, with all the accompanying benefits.

That status was later withdrawn, but Sanogo then leapt from the rank of captain to general in August after a presidential election.

Human Rights Watch described his promotion as a “shameful act” and argued the former captain should have been investigated for alleged involvement in torture.

Last month Sanogo left the army barracks where he had been living to move into the new residence in the capital.