France, Feb. 9 -- The anti-terrorism investigating judge looking into the assassination of the journalists sent the request last month to the French Ministry of the Armed Forces.

This comes after a request from the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit.

"There have already been several declassifications, but they were limited, with documents heavily redacted," Daniele Gonod, president of the Association of Friends of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, told French news agency AFP.

According to Gonod, authorities had previously invoked the top-secret nature of the documents, citing the need to protect French sources in Mali.

Frenchforces had been supportingMaliagainst insurgents for nearly a decade, but were pulled out in the wake of a milit...