The Senegalese Embassy in Ottawa deplored on Saturday the dissemination of “false and shocking” information about one of its collaborators, aiming according to it to “dilute the seriousness” of the “unacceptable police violence” suffered by the diplomat.
His arrest in early August caused an outcry in Senegal and the embarrassment of the Canadian government.
Ms. Niang Oumou Kalsoum Sall, Foreign Affairs adviser, was the victim of “humiliating physical and moral violence”, being handcuffed and beaten, according to Dakar, during an intervention at her home by the police in Gatineau, a Quebec suburb. from Ottawa.
The intervention aimed to accompany a bailiff coming to notify the diplomat of an order from an administrative housing tribunal. This obtained by Radio Canada and consulted by AFP condemned the diplomat to pay more than 45,000 Canadian dollars to her landlord for “unpaid rent” and damage to housing.
In an information note at the end of the week, the Senegalese embassy considers that the “allegations” against Ms. Niang “betray a manifest desire to dilute the gravity of the incident which concerns a flagrant and serious violation of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”.
She also regrets that the information relayed by the press “is based on the only version of the lessor”.
Intended to “set the record straight,” the memo details Ms. Xiang’s long run-ins with her landlord, arguing that the latter has been in good faith throughout, having suffered since the onset of heating and oil problems. humidity due to non-compliance with construction standards and that its owner had been threatening towards it.
Exasperated, Ms. Xiang finally decided to move out in October 2020 and, upon handing over the keys, offered the housing manager the last rent due, which he refused.
Still according to the embassy, Ms. Xiang received a few months later by bailiff a request for payment of 57,207 dollars to cover, in particular, the cost of rebuilding the house.
Ms. Xiang for her part indicated through a lawyer that she only owed the owner the rent for the month of October that the manager had not wanted to take.
The embassy believes that in light of these explanations the charges against Ms. Xiang do not hold.
“Nothing in this case can justify the violence suffered by Ms. Xiang and her minor children”, concludes the embassy, indicating “to follow very closely the investigation which has been ordered into the unacceptable actions of the police officers”.
The Canadian government condemned the incident as unacceptable.