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A 170-page complaint has been made against Macky Sall, the president of Senegal.
His primary rival Ousmane Sonko has reported him to the police in France for allegedly committing “crimes against humanity” between March 2021 and June 2023.
On June 22, Sonko’s attorney clarified the charges during a press conference.
Attorney Juan Branco, representing Ousmane Sonko of the Senegalese opposition:
We’ve been conducting a thorough investigation for the past month, and I’d like to thank the hundreds of Senegalese who took part in it,” French attorney Juan Branco stated.
“[They were] citizens, civil servants, people working in all the government administrations who have given us evidence, documents, contracts, videos, and testimonies that have allowed us to establish the existence of 60 murders that are regarded as crimes against humanity.”
Juan Branco, a French-Spanish attorney, purportedly showed Senegalese protesters being murdered or gravely hurt during the fatal violence earlier in June in the films and photographs he exhibited during the press conference.
Amnesty International has recorded 23 fatalities, while the opposition has recorded 30, compared to the government’s 16 fatalities for the month of June.
Sonko claims that the tragic clashes that took place this month after he was sentenced to prison are the most recent development in “a generalised and systematic attack on the civilian population” of Senegal that has been going on since March 2021.
He received a two-year sentence for “corrupting the youth”. He was accused of rape and making death threats by a worker at a spa.
Following a previous uprising two years ago that left at least 12 dead, the fatal demonstration that followed the court’s decision is the worst Senegal has witnessed in years.
presidential election in 2024
In addition to the president, Interior Minister Antoine Diome, Chief of Military Police Moussa Fall, and 112 other people are the targets of opposition leader Sonko’s case.
The crimes against humanity unit of the Paris tribunal has received his criminal complaint.
It claims that since March 2021, Sall and Diome have “ordered and supervised the commission” of crimes like as “murders, torture, and forced disappearances” “against unarmed demonstrators.”
Sonko also asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to conduct an investigation.
He makes use of a clause that permits any individual or organisation to request the opening of an investigation.
Senegal, which is preparing for a presidential election in 2024, is experiencing high levels of tension.
Sonko, a captivating speaker with a quick wit, has gained a devoted following among Senegal’s youth, who enjoy his jabs at the “state mafia” of the country’s political establishment.
He declared he will run in the elections the next year, but his conviction might prevent him from doing so.
President Macky Sall has refused to rule out a similar move, after riding to power in 2012 on a wave of resentment over his predecessor Abdoulaye Wade’s attempts to run for a third term.
Police forces on the outskirts of Paris, where the Senegalese President is attending an international summit, drove back protesters against Sall on Thursday, June 22.
The legal complaint was deemed “ridiculous” by Macky Sall.
tax collector who later entered politics
In 2014, Sonko established the PASTEF-Les Patriotes party.
He rose to fame, however, after being removed from his position as a tax inspector two years later for openly criticising dubious public sector contracts and calling out the political establishment.
Sonko moved up the political ladder in 2017 when he was elected as a member of parliament. In 2019, he made an impressive run for president.
He received 15% of the vote while running on an anti-establishment ticket against more seasoned opponents, an unexpectedly high showing for a relative newbie.
Sonko’s strategy “is the antithesis of our democratic culture and traditions,” according to Yoro Dia, one of the president’s aides.
divisive character
Dia claimed that Sonko is inciting violence as a means of eluding justice.
Sonko, whose puritanical, ultra-orthodox brand of Islam contrasts with Senegal’s more moderate Sufi mysticism, is what he called “the Trojan Horse of the Salafists,” according to him.
Sonko was born in Casamance’s turbulent southern region.
In the largest town of the area, Ziguinchor, 75-year-old retiree Amadou Badji claimed Sall had been pursuing Sonko for the previous five years “simply because he raises hope.”
However, 33-year-old coffee vendor Algassim Diallo claimed that “a story about rapes has held the nation hostage for the past two years… It is time to proceed.
