JUDGMENT
1. On 15 May 2006, Moussa Leo Kena, a retired civil servant whose address is BP
757, Bamako Mali, filed an Application at the Court of Justice of ECOWAS. The
Application was registered at the Regishy of the Court on 12 July 2006.
2. This Application was accompanied by the following exhibits:
• An extract from the 11 May 1969 issue of the Washington Post newspaper
containing some specimens of artefacts belonging to the Applicant and an
evaluation of the mtefacts as done by James M. Silbe1man, valued at
$65,960.
•
Ce1tification No. 9/Dir.R/MN dated 24 November 1972, from the National
Museum of Mali relating to the collection of artefacts in the custody of
Moussa Leo Ke'ita.
• A letter from Moussa Leo Ke'ita dated 4 September 1972, addressed to
Mali's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation; another, dated 9
Janumy 1978 addressed to the same Authority; and then that of 3 August
1989, for the same purposes. 1brough these letters, the Applicant sought to
reclaim his collection of artefacts.
3. The Application as well as the exhibits accompanying it was served on the
Secretariat of the Directorate General of the State Depmtment for Disputes on 11
September 2006, by the Chambers of Diawoye Kante Esq., a Court Bailiff at
Bamako.
4. Through this Application, Moussa Leo Ke'ita set out his submissions that he was
the owner of a collection of mtefacts from his country, which he exhibited at the
Embassy of Mali, to make Mali more known to the Americans at the time he was
representing his country as Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary from 1965
-- to · 1969. -According to -the Applicant, - the collection -contairied 110 arlfoles·--originating from all the regions of Mali. These artefacts were evaluated in 1965 at
65,960 US Dollars by an expe1t known as Silbennan of the Smithsanian Institute,
USA.
5, Posted to Egypt in 1969 in the same capacity, he had to leave his materials at the
Embassy. In 1972, he demanded these materials, but was met with a refusal from
the Govemment of Mali, the latter challenging the ownership of the materials.
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