2023-06-01 19:50:47
Groups of young people attacked public property at several points in the capital, burned tires and placed obstacles in the streets, noted an AFP photographer. Clashes pitted groups against the security forces with stones and tear gas.
Unrest has been reported on social media elsewhere in the country. Ms. Satire Mbaye, a presidential party official in Keur Massar, on the outskirts of Dakar, said the party headquarters had been “trashed”. “They broke the windows and destroyed the equipment that was inside. They asked where Assome’s house is. Diatta, the local party official, she said.
The highway leading to the airport was cut off by protesters, media reported. The new train serving the new city of Diamniadio from the capital has stopped running. This violence follows the deliberation rendered Thursday by a criminal chamber in Dakar against Ousmane Sonko, the fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, accused of rape and death threats.
The court sentenced him for “youth corruption”which consists of promoting the “debauchery” of a young person under the age of 21. On the other hand, she acquitted him of the charges of rape and death threats. The complainant, Adji Sarr, a former employee of the beauty salon where Mr. Sonko went to have a massage, was under 21 at the time of the events she denounces.
The court’s decision aroused noisy demonstrations of disapproval in the courtroom placed under heavy police protection, without it being clear whether they were due to sympathy for the plaintiff or for Mr. Sonko.
Adji Sarr left the court without speaking. Threatened and insulted since the scandal broke, placed under police protection, she has always persisted in her accusations. She told the trial that Mr. Sonko had abused her five times between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. She never became the figure of a fight against violence against women, the file being too politicized by the presidential election and society do not facilitate such a commitment.
“Held captive”
Mr. Sonko has continued to deny the accusations and to shout at the plot hatched by the power to exclude him from the presidential election. The boss and witnesses disputed Adji Sarr’s statements at trial.
The owner of the Sweet Beauté salon, Ndèye Khady Ndiaye, was also sentenced to two years in prison for incitement to debauchery, but acquitted of complicity in rape. She and Mr. Sonko must each pay 600,000 CFA francs (900 euros) in fines and jointly 20 million FCFA (30,000 euros) in damages to the complainant.
“We are satisfied with Sonko’s guilt”, told the press Me El Hadji Diouf, Adji Sarr’s lawyer. But 20 million FCFA in damages is not much for the “sufferings” that she endured, he lamented. The decision seems in view of the electoral code to maintain the threat to the eligibility of Mr. Sonko and his ability to compete in the presidential election next year.
The court did not rule on a possible arrest of Mr. Sonko. “The decision to arrest him or not depends on the public prosecutor’s office”said one of Mr. Sonko’s lawyers, Me Djiby Diagne. “Let all Senegalese know: Ousmane Sonko can no longer be a candidate”said another of his advisers, Me Bamba Cissé.
At the time of the court decision, Mr. Sonko, president of the Pastef-les Patriotes party and third in the 2019 presidential election, was presumed to be at his home in Dakar, blocked since Sunday by a large police force, “held captive” in his words.
The security forces repelled, including by force, any attempt to approach him by his lawyers or his supporters. The stakes are as much criminal as political. The eligibility of Mr. Sonko, 48, is already compromised by a recent six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation against a minister.
Since February 2021, when the case of alleged rapes hit the headlines, Mr. Sonko has been engaged in a standoff with power for his judicial and political survival. About 20 civilians have been killed since 2021 in unrest largely linked to his situation. The power and the camp of Mr. Sonko reject the fault.
AFP
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