Violence erupted Thursday in Dakar and Senegal after Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, accused of rape, was sentenced to two years in prison for “youth corruption”, a sentence that further compromises his presidential candidacy of 2024.
Two police officials told AFP on condition of anonymity of three deaths in demonstrations in Ziguinchor (south) and of a policeman stoned to death by young people in the suburbs of Dakar. No official has publicly confirmed this information.
Mr. 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, after two years of a confrontation with the authorities which held the country in suspense, he can now be arrested “at any time”, announced to journalists the Minister of Justice Ismaïla Madior Fall.
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 vehicles from the medical school, the history department and the country’s main school of journalism were set on fire and offices ransacked.
Groups of young people attacked public property at several points in the capital, burned tires and placed obstacles in the streets, noted an AFP photographer.
Apart from these hotbeds of violence, the streets of Dakar have been deserted, a rare sight in a teeming metropolis.
Disturbances have been reported elsewhere in the country, in Casamance (south), Mbour and Kaolack (west) or Saint-Louis (north).
They follow the deliberation rendered Thursday by a criminal chamber in Dakar against Ousmane Sonko, accused of rape and death threats.
The court sentenced him for “youth corruption”, which consists of promoting the “debauchery” of a young person under the age of 21. 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 Mr. Sonko went 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 against violence against women, the file being too politicized by the presidential election and society not facilitating such a commitment.
” Held captive “
Mr. Sonko has continued to deny the charges, shouting at the machinations 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 Mr. 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 Mr. Sonko must each pay 600,000 CFA francs (900 euros) in fines and jointly 20 million FCFA (30,000 euros) in damages to the complainant.
“We are satisfied with Sonko’s guilt,” Ms.e El Hadji Diouf, lawyer for Adji Sarr. 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, in view of the electoral code, should entail the ineligibility of Mr. Sonko.
The eligibility of Ousmane Sonko, 48, is already compromised by a recent six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation against a minister.
“Let all Senegalese know it: Ousmane Sonko can no longer be a candidate,” said one of his advisers, Mr.e Bamba Cisse.
Since February 2021, when the case of alleged rapes hit the headlines, Mr. Sonko has been engaged in a standoff with power for his judicial and political survival.
About 20 civilians have been killed since 2021 in unrest largely linked to his situation. The power and the camp of Mr. Sonko reject the fault.