APA-Dakar (Senegal) – The mayor of Ziguinchor (South) came third in the last presidential elections with more than 15% of the votes.
Ousmane Sonko, considered the main opponent of President Macky Sall, has just been sent to prison. On Monday, the mayor of Ziguinchor (South) was heard by the senior judge, Oumar Maham Diallo, and charged with eight counts before being remanded in custody, according to several Senegalese media.
Speaking to the press on Saturday, the day after Sonko’s arrest, Abdoul Karim Diop, the prosecutor at the Dakar High Court, listed a number of charges relating to events dating back to March 2021, which he said “all converge” on the Pastef party leader. They include: “incitement to insurrection, criminal association, attack on state security, conspiracy against state authority, acts and maneuvers to endanger public security and create serious political unrest, criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise, but also theft of a mobile phone.”
Although Sonko is also charged with phone theft, the head of the public prosecutor’s office clarified on Saturday that the alleged theft of “a mobile phone belonging to a gendarme […] was only one of the triggers for his arrest, which was also imminent.” “All of these actions, which have caused incalculable material damage and around forty deaths between March 2021 and June 2023, inevitably converge on Ousmane Sonko,” he said.
The judge added that “the case against Ousmane Sonko is practically closed” and that “the state will take all the necessary measures to maintain order and protect people and property from any threat.”
The Pastef leader has already been convicted twice, including for corruption of youth in the case of masseuse Adji Sarr, who accused him of rape and death threats.
ODL/ac/lb/abj/APA