2024-03-05 15:15:10
In Senegal, the proposed amnesty law passed the Law Commission stage on Tuesday March 5. Its examination by this restricted group of 30 parliamentarians is the last step before its arrival on Wednesday March 6 in plenary and its analysis by all the deputies of the Assembly. This project initiated by President Macky Sall, supposed to pacify the political game following the postponement of the presidential election, is already controversial. However, it might benefit in particular Bassirou Diomaye Faye, of the former Pastef party.
Published on: 03/05/2024 – 4:15 p.m. Modified on: 03/05/2024 – 10:18 p.m.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
During its study by the Law Commission on Tuesday March 5, the amnesty bill was approved by sixteen votes for, three once morest and seven abstentions.
According to the first article of this bill, might benefit from an amnesty all those accused of crimes in connection with the protests that took place between February 2021 and February 2024, as well as those arrested for political motivations. The Minister of Justice, Aïssata Tall Sall, who came to defend the bill, assured that the amnesty did not concern the perpetrators of homicides and that those responsible for police blunders might still be prosecuted.
If no name has been given, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the presidential candidate of the dissolved opposition party Pastef (the African Patriots of Senegal for work, ethics and fraternity) might fall within this framework: his release might become possible. Arrested in April 2023 for contempt of court, he has since been in pre-trial detention, notably for of the « acts likely to compromise public peace ».
The period, as well as the charges once morest him, correspond to those covered by this bill.
The question is more complex for Ousmane Sonko. The fiercest opponent of Macky Sall was made ineligible and excluded from the presidential race following his six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation once morest the Minister of Tourism. In light of this amnesty law, this conviction might be described as political.
Especially since the bill specifies, in its introduction, that the text “ will allow people deprived of their civil and political rights to be restored »: these few lines might therefore open the debate on the release, or even the candidacy of Ousmane Sonko for the presidential election, in the event that the list of candidates is reopened.
However, there remains another conviction which weighs like a sword of Damocles on the political future of Ousmane Sonko, and which is not covered by the bill: he was sentenced to two years in prison for “ youth corruption », following his accusation of repeated rapes by an employee of a massage parlor in Dakar.
Many unknowns, but a controversy even among the presidential majority
The bill still has many unknown aspects and it’s already controversial, including within the presidential majority. One of the questions is in particular that of reparations: in the bill does not mention the possibility for victims to obtain compensation. At least 60 people were killed, hundreds of Senegalese arrested, some of whom were victims of ill-treatment during the period.
For human rights organizations, a general amnesty will deprive these families of justice: it would then be impossible to prosecute the police responsible for police repression or ill-treatment. This amnesty therefore risks promoting impunity.
Same fear among certain members of the majority who would like to see all those who ransacked public places judged and not amnestied. Or the members of the opposition who encouraged this violence, for example.
Given the stakes, the discussions therefore promise to be long and hectic until Wednesday in the National Assembly.
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