A court in Mali has handed a 20-year prison sentence to a French intelligence agent with diplomatic status for charges of 'undermining state security.' This ruling further strains relations between Mali and France.

A court in Mali has sentenced a French intelligence agent with diplomatic status to 20 years in prison for “undermining state security”, judicial sources said Friday, in a ruling that further strains already fraught relations between the West African junta-led state and its former colonial ruler France.