Senegal Sentences Opponent Ousmane Sonko: 2-Month Suspension
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, Mes Bamba Cissé and Cheikh Khoureyssi Ba, told AFP. However, no confirmation of this assertion was obtained at first.
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.
One of the minister’s lawyers, Frenchman Pierre-Olivier Sur, said he was satisfied that his client won his case. “It’s heavy and symbolic but, for all that, this condemnation is measured to such an extent that it does not deprive (Mr. Sonko) of his civil and political rights and (of his right) to remain in the political debate”, added he said, abounding in the sense of the preserved eligibility of Mr. Sonko.
“If the decision had been too heavy, it was the city that was on fire and the country perhaps too,” he told reporters.
Behind This Defamation Lawsuit
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 .
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.
This article is originally published on france24.com
