A/HRC/23/57 D. Violations of freedom of expression 37. One of the most striking of the cases of violation of freedom of expression brought to the attention of human rights observers was that of Boukary Daou, the editor of the daily newspaper Le Républicain. Mr. Daou was arrested on 6 March 2013 and held in the premises of the State Security Service for 8 days. He was then brought before Bamako Court of First Instance and charged with inciting violence and disseminating false information following the publication of a letter, attributed to soldiers, which criticized the financial benefits granted to Captain Sanogo, the leader of the 21 March 2012 coup d’état, by the transitional President. 38. On 18 March 2013, Mr. Daou was placed in pretrial detention in Bamako Central Prison. On 2 April 2013, he was released on bail. On 30 April 2013, Bamako Court of First Instance ruled that the case against him was null and void. His trial was monitored by the MINUSMA Human Rights Division and by NGOs involved in the defence of press freedom and human rights. E. Conditions of detainees arrested in the north 39. In execution of its mandate, the MINUSMA Human Rights Division continues to make regular, unrestricted visits to Gendarmerie Camp I in Bamako and to Bamako Central Prison to assess the conditions in which persons detained in connection with the military operations in the north are being held. The human rights teams were also able to meet with 10 combatants assumed to be members of armed groups who had been arrested in the region of Ber and Boureim and were being detained in the military camp in Timbuktu before being transferred to Bamako. 40. As of 9 May 2013, more than 295 suspected members or collaborators of armed groups arrested in various locations in the north during the military operations to retake control there were being detained in Bamako. The majority of the detainees were Malians aged between 20 and 76 years’ old, 80 per cent of whom were of Songhay or Peul origin and the remainder Arabs or Tuaregs. Their number also included people originally from Algeria, Burkina Faso, France, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and Tunisia. Three prisoners of French nationality are reported to have been extradited to France. 41. Some detainees interviewed by the MINUSMA Human Rights Division said that they had been tortured by members of the Malian army at the time of their arrest in the north. Some had visible scars on their bodies which they claimed were the result of torture. All credible testimonies corroborated by detainees’ statements indicate that the torture and other inhuman acts ceased once the detainees were placed in the custody of members of the gendarmerie or were transferred to Bamako. However, the Government’s undertaking to investigate the extent to which members of the Malian Defence and Security Forces were involved in these human rights violations has yet to be followed by concrete action. 42. On 11 April 2013, MINUSMA human rights observers received confirmation of the death of four alleged members of armed groups at Bamako Central Prison during the night of 6 to 7 April 2013. An administrative investigation was initiated by the judicial authorities in an attempt to clarify the exact causes of their death. According to the authorities, three of the detainees were sick at the time of their transfer to Bamako. It should be noted that, after visiting Bamako Central Prison on 22 and 23 March 2013, the MINUSMA human rights observers had drawn the judicial authorities’ attention to the need to improve the conditions in which alleged members of armed groups were being held. During this visit, detainees 10 GE.13-15228