Death Sentence For Mali's "Barefooted" Sect Founder

July 26, 2000

BAMAKO, Mali (PANA) - The Bamako criminal court Tuesday sentenced to death Cheikh Kanoute, the founder of a Malian sect of followers known as the "Bare-footed", and two of his disciples.

The court found the sect leader and his disciples, Abdou Doumbia and Abdoulaye Diakite, guilty of assassinating a judge in Dioila, 250 km from Bamako 2 August 1998.

The three were part of a group of seven sect members that killed the judge. The judge had sentenced their colleague who died while in detention.

Kanoute founded the "barefooted" sect after he had allegedly seen a vision. He then abandoned his studies and lived in seclusion for two years during which he lived in the hollows of baobab trees in Bougouni, 180 km from Bamako.

The sect's adepts, whose number is unknown, reject modernity. They dress traditionally and walk barefooted, which explains their name.

Although the death penalty exists under Mali's penal code, it has never been applied.

Former Malian President Gen. Moussa Traore and his wife, Mariam, were senteced to death but this was later commuted to life imprisonment.

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