2023-08-05 19:16:10
After several days of playing cat and mouse with the authorities, French lawyer Juan Branco, wanted by Senegal in connection with recent unrest in that country, has been arrested, several Senegalese police officials said on Saturday. These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in the absence of official communication on a transnational subject, did not provide details on the circumstances of the arrest.
Senegalese media have mentioned an arrest between Senegal and Mauritania, while Juan Branco was trying, according to them, to discreetly leave the country where he had surreptitiously entered a few days earlier. A source close to the case also reported his arrest on the Mauritanian side, but the lawyer’s situation remained unclear on Saturday mid-afternoon.
“A political persecution”, according to his lawyers
“We will oppose all legal remedies to thwart a possible attempt to extradite Juan Branco to Senegal,” his French lawyers Luc Brossolet, François Gibault and Robin Binsard told AFP, suggesting that he found in Mauritania. “His legal fight for Ousmane Sonko does not justify the political persecution to which he is subjected in Dakar,” they said.
Juan Branco made a name for himself in Senegal by taking part in the defense of Ousmane Sonko, an opponent engaged since 2021 in a showdown with power and justice. The confrontation has given rise to several episodes of deadly violence for more than two years. The lawyer attracted a lot of attention by announcing a complaint in France and a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against President Macky Sall for “crimes against humanity” in June, when the country was coming to experience its worst troubles in years.
Defense of Ousmane Sonko
The Senegalese public prosecutor’s office announced on July 14 that it had opened a judicial investigation and requested an arrest warrant against him based on his writings and his remarks. Juan Branco, however, caused surprise on Sunday by unexpectedly bursting into a press conference of Senegalese lawyers for Ousmane Sonko in Dakar, two days after the arrest of the opponent. The latter has since been imprisoned on various charges, including calling for insurrection. The lawyer had been turned away a few months earlier at the airport when he was trying to enter Senegal.
Senegalese Foreign Minister Aïssata Tall Sall did not deny Thursday to the press reports that Juan Branco had this time entered through the land border with Gambia. She indicated that the Senegalese authorities had raised the subject with their Gambian counterparts.
“He dreams of Victor Hugo”
During the press conference on Sunday, the lawyer Branco had read a text which disconcerted a certain number of those present, then slipped away. He had since been wanted by the Senegalese police services.
Former Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye estimated on social networks that the lawyer had “ridiculed Senegal and exposed (its) security flaws”. The Senegalese government on Thursday described Juan Branco as a publicity-hungry lawyer shirking his responsibilities. “Senegal should not be the sounding board for a lawyer who is in need of recognition in his country” and who “dreams of Victor Hugo”, said the government’s minister spokesperson, Abdou Karim Fofana. “If you have the courage to challenge a state, to challenge a nation, you have to face it,” he said.
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