2023-05-09 06:28:26
On the evening of Monday May 8, clashes between demonstrators and police broke out at the Cheikh-Anta-Diop University in Dakar and in the working-class neighborhoods of the Senegalese capital.
The protesters expressed their dissatisfaction after the conviction on appeal of Ousmane Sonko to six months in prison suspended and 200 million CFA francs (about 300,000 euros) fine for defamation and public insult against the Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang. A sentence that could make the main opponent of President Macky Sall ineligible for the presidential election of February 2024, if the conviction becomes final. Mr. Sonko can still appeal in cassation.
“Six months with reprieve, that’s what it’s worthrejoiced the French lawyer for the plaintiff, Me Pierre-Olivier Sur. Ousmane Sonko himself forced the yellow card [brandi par les juges en] first instance to turn into a red card: to appeal, and not to come, is to promise to start again, and to outrage the judges is to permanently banish yourself from the rule of law. » The leader of the Pastef party (African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity), which derives its great popularity among young people from its patriotic and anti-Western speech, had indeed decided not to go to court. , and his lawyers had also boycotted the hearing. The day before, he had declared that he had “made the decision to no longer collaborate with justice” and not to show up ” before [elle] to answer anything.”
New trial
The declared candidate for the 2024 presidential election, who denounces a plot to remove him from the political scene, had called for the “civic disobedience against justice”. The politician, who is also mayor of Ziguinchor, in Casamance, had decided to convene a session of his municipal council at the same time as his appeal trial was being held.
Tuesday, May 16, Ousmane Sonko is again summoned before the judges for more serious reasons. He is accused of rape by Adji Sarr, an employee of a massage parlor he frequented. In 2021, his arrest on the way to court in this criminal case caused violent riots which left at least thirteen dead.
Monday evening, Ousmane Sonko’s lawyers reserved their reaction. “For the moment, the defense is assessing the situation and does not intend to communicate immediately”replied M.e Bamba Cisse. The opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi, of which Mr. Sonko is a member, planned to make a statement on Tuesday during the day.
“Instrumentation of justice”
But the leader of the Pastef party has already received a lot of support from opposition figures. “I am shocked by this conviction, which demonstrates once again that the authorities use justice to settle political disputes. And all the more so since I have experienced such a situation. We will continue to ask that the presidential election be inclusive, that all candidates can participate, except the outgoing president., said Khalifa Sall. The former mayor of Dakar was sentenced to five years in prison in 2018 for fraud involving public and false funds. This sentence had prevented him from running in the 2019 presidential election. This time, he called “all the vital forces of the nation to stand up against this umpteenth breach of the rule of law and democracy”.
Support also expressed by Aminata Touré, former head of the legislative election list of the ruling coalition Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY), who slammed the door of the presidential camp in September 2022 in order to stand up against a third term for President Macky Sall . “I protest against the unjust verdict against Ousmane Sonko, the objective of which is to prevent him from being a candidate in the presidential election of 2024”says the politician, who also calls “the democrats to mobilize against this unprecedented democratic regression in our country”.
A protest is scheduled for Friday. by the opposition platform to denounce “the instrumentalization of justice to eliminate candidates”, but also for “oppose the third term of Macky Sall”. The head of state, in power since 2012, is suspected by his opponents of wanting to run for a third term.
Pape Mahawa Diouf, spokesperson for the presidential coalition, recalled that“being a politician does not absolve civic duties and does not place above the law”. “The country is facing a drift in public debate, attempts to transfer violence to the streets and to replace the appeased political debate with insults, threats and bravado against the defense and security forces, and ‘permanent calls for insurrection against the institutions’he regretted, calling for the regulation of political debate “by force of ideas and not by violence in the street”.
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