Senegal’s highest courtroom has successfully barred detained opposition chief Ousmane Sonko from operating for president early subsequent 12 months
ByBABACAR DIONE Related Press
November 17, 2023, 1:28 PM
FILE – Senegalese opposition chief Ousmane Sonko addresses journalists following his launch from police custody in Dakar, Senegal, on March 8, 2021. Senegalese authorities say that opposition chief and presidential hopeful Ousmane Sonko is again in jail after being hospitalized for weeks throughout a starvation strike. (AP Photograph/Sylvain Cherkaoui, File)
The Related Press
DAKAR, Senegal — Senegal’s highest courtroom on Friday successfully barred detained opposition chief Ousmane Sonko from operating for president early subsequent 12 months by overturning a call that might have reinstated him to the West African nation’s voter rolls.
The authorized setback for the embattled politician got here the identical day {that a} West African regional courtroom dismissed his case searching for his reinstatement. Sonko was just lately returned to a Dakar jail after being hospitalized for a number of weeks amid a starvation strike.
Senegal’s authorities formally dissolved Sonko’s political social gathering earlier this 12 months and canceled his voter registration after he was convicted of corrupting youth. His followers keep the cost and prosecution had been politically motivated and aimed toward derailing his candidacy within the February election.
A courtroom within the southern metropolis of Ziguinchor, the place Sonko serves as mayor, dominated in favor of restoring him to the voter rolls however the Supreme Courtroom “quashed and annulled” that call, in response to Sonko lawyer Cire Cledor Ly. The case was remanded to the Dakar excessive courtroom, he mentioned.
Senegalese authorities have refused to offer Sonko the sponsorship papers wanted to formally register his candidacy.
Sonko, who completed third within the nation’s final presidential election, was extensively seen as the principle challenger to President Macky Sall’s ruling social gathering. Sall finally determined to not search a 3rd time period in workplace after Sonko’s supporters launched months of protests that at instances turned lethal.
In June, Sonko was acquitted on costs of raping a girl who labored at a therapeutic massage parlor and making loss of life threats towards her. However he was convicted of corrupting youth and sentenced to 2 years in jail, which ignited lethal protests throughout the nation.
In late July, Senegalese authorities formally dissolved Sonko’s political social gathering and positioned him in detention. He’s now going through costs of calling for riot, conspiracy towards the state and different alleged crimes.
Sonko additionally had appealed to the Courtroom of Justice of the regional bloc ECOWAS to contest each the dissolution of his social gathering and the putting of his voter registration, however that courtroom dominated Friday “that none of Mr. Ousmane Sonko’s rights had been violated and dismissed his claims,” Ly mentioned.
