Two deputies from the Senegalese opposition were sentenced Monday, January 2 to six months in prison for having struck at the National Assembly a colleague of the majority, noted an AFP journalist.
The 1is December, MP Massata Samb attacked his colleague Amy Ndiaye from the rostrum over statements she had made against Moustapha Sy, leader of a party that is a member of the main opposition coalition, the Unity and Gathering (PUR), who is not a deputy but is an influential marabout in Senegal.
The images that have been circulating on a loop are very widely perceived as showing Massata Samb slapping the parliamentarian and his colleague Mamadou Niang kicking him in the stomach, in the middle of a public session.
Amy Ndiaye was hospitalized after the incident and risks losing the baby she is carrying, her lawyer, Mr.e Baboucar Cisse. She was discharged from the hospital but remains “in an extremely difficult situation”he added.
The untouchable status of marabouts
The two parliamentarians, imprisoned since December 15, were tried on December 19 by the court for flagrante delicto in Dakar. He also sentenced them on Monday to each pay a fine of 100,000 CFA francs (about 150 euros) and “jointly” damages of 5 million CFA francs (approximately 7,600 euros) for “intentional assault and battery” on Amy Ndiaye, deputy of the presidential party. The prosecution had required two years firm.
The two deputies were not present Monday during the reading of the judgment. “They will stay in prison until we appeal”, one of their lawyers, Abdy Nar Ndiaye, told AFP. Despite the images, they had denied during the trial having hit their colleague.
The defense of the two deputies had pleaded that the trial could not take place given the parliamentary immunity of their clients, but the court ignored it. The incident was seen as symptomatic of tensions between the opposition and the majority, of violence against women, but also of the untouchable status of marabouts.
The presidential camp lost the absolute majority it held after the July legislative elections, which gave the Assembly a virtual balance of power in a tense political context. President Macky Sall, elected in 2012 for seven years and re-elected in 2019 for five years, remains silent on his intentions for the 2024 presidential election.