2023-06-01 20:52:27
Senegal
Violence erupts following the conviction of opponent Sonko
Opponent Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday, which jeopardizes his presidential candidacy in 2024.
Published
Groups of young people attacked public property at several points in Dakar, burned tires and placed obstacles in the streets.
Violence erupted Thursday in Dakar and Senegal following Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, accused of rape, was sentenced to two years in prison for “corruption of youth”, a sentence that further compromises his presidential candidacy of 2024.
deserted streets
Ousmane Sonko, the fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, was absent at the delivery of the judgment, as during his trial. He is presumed to be blocked by the security forces at his home in the capital, “kidnapped” according to him.
But, following two years of a confrontation with the authorities which held the country in suspense, he can now be arrested “at any time”, Justice Minister Ismaïla Madior Fall told reporters. Without waiting for such an arrest, the dreaded troubles before the deliberation broke out in Dakar and in several cities.
The University of Dakar has taken on the air of a battlefield. Groups of young people confronted with stones the police retaliating with tear gas. Several buses from the Faculty of Medicine, the Department of History and the country’s main school of journalism were set on fire and offices ransacked.
“Debauchery”
They follow the deliberation rendered Thursday by a criminal chamber in Dakar once morest Ousmane Sonko, accused of rape and death threats. The court condemned him for “corruption of youth”, which consists in favoring the “debauchery” of a young person under 21 years of age.
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 Ousmane Sonko was going to have a massage, was under 21 at the time of the events she denounces. She left the court without speaking.
Threatened and insulted since the scandal broke, placed under police protection, she has always persisted in her accusations. She never became the figure of a fight once morest violence once morest women, the file being too politicized by the presidential election and society not facilitating such a commitment.
“Held captive”
Ousmane Sonko has continued to deny the accusations, shouting at the machination of power to remove him from the presidential election. “This verdict on command is the final stage of the plot hatched by Macky Sall and his henchmen”, reacted in a press release the party of Ousmane Sonko, Pastef, who called on the Senegalese to “take to the streets” and the forces order to join them.
The boss 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 Ousmane Sonko must each pay 600,000 CFA francs (875 francs) in fines and jointly 20 million FCFA (29,000 euros) in damages to the complainant.
“We are satisfied with Sonko’s guilt,” Me El Hadji Diouf, Adji Sarr’s lawyer, told the press. But 20 million FCFA in damages is little for the “suffering” she endured, he lamented. The stakes are as much criminal as political. The decision seems in view of the electoral code to lead to the ineligibility of Ousmane Sonko.
(AFP)
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