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The sentence fell in the trial for defamation of Ousmane Sonko, potential candidate for the presidency of Senegal in 2024 and serious competitor of President Macky Sall. The politician was given a two-month suspended prison sentence, which preserves his eligibility for the presidential election, according to his lawyers. He cries out for the instrumentalization of justice.
Macky Sall’s main rival narrowly escapes ineligibility for the 2024 presidential election in Senegal. A Senegalese court sentenced the opponent Ousmane Sonko, Thursday, March 30, to two months in prison suspended for defamation against a minister.
“With a two-month suspended sentence, Sonko remains eligible,” two of his lawyers, Mr.es Bamba Cisse and Cheikh Khoureyssi Ba. However, no confirmation of this assertion was obtained at first.
>> To read also: Ousmane Sonko, the fierce opponent of Macky Sall who dreams of succeeding him
Ousmane Sonko, 48, was to answer for defamation, insults and forgery against the Minister of Tourism Mame Mbaye Niang during this trial under high tension, in a capital squared by the police and the gendarmes.
Sonko and his supporters cry out for the instrumentalization of justice
Behind this defamation lawsuit, it is the declared candidacy of Ousmane Sonko for the presidential election of February 2024 that is at stake. The texts in force provide for the removal from the electoral lists, and therefore ineligibility, in certain cases of conviction for defamation .
>> See also: Senegal: what is blamed on Ousmane Sonko, leader of the opposition, and what does he risk?
The opponent, who came third in the presidential election in 2019, as well as his supporters, cry out for the instrumentalization of justice by the power in place, which would seek to eliminate him politically and clear the way for the outgoing Macky Sall. Ousmane Sonko has sworn not to let it go.
In addition to the two months of suspended prison sentence, the court condemned the opponent, absent at the hearing, to pay 200 million CFA francs (300,000 euros) to the minister. He acquitted him of the offenses of insults and forgery.
With AFP