Senegalese opposition leader is sentenced to 2 years in prison
A court in Senegal on Thursday sentenced the country’s leading opposition leader to two years in prison after pleading guilty to “corrupting youths”. The ruling, which provisionally bars him from running in future elections, casts doubt on the political future of the West African nation less than a year before the next presidential contest.
The opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, was accused of raping an employee of a massage parlor in Dakar, the capital, and making death threats against her. The court acquitted him of those charges, which he had denied and denounced as an attempt by Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, to sideline him.
But the “corrupting youth” conviction — a charge linked to an allegation that he had a sexual relationship with the massage parlor worker, who was under 21 at the time — does not make him eligible to run in next year’s election, a poll found. which is widespread. seen in Senegal and wider West Africa as a test of democratic values in the region.
There is no public evidence that Mr Sonko’s case is politically motivated, but some academics, human rights observers and most of Mr Sall’s opponents have raised questions about the lack of concrete evidence and the harsh treatment of Mr Sonko during the proceedings. They have also warned of a steady erosion of democratic standards in recent years as several political opponents have been imprisoned and journalists arrested.
Senegal, a country of 17 million people, has long been hailed as a model of political pluralism in West Africa, a region known for coups and aging leaders clinging to power. Elections have been mostly peaceful since the country gained independence from France in 1960, and their results have usually been respected by all parties. The United States and European countries, as well as China, consider Senegal one of their most reliable partners in West Africa.
But the battle over the political future of 48-year-old Sonko, whose fiery rhetoric has made him popular among young Senegalese, has become the president’s biggest challenge. In the coming months, it could lead to the toughest test of Senegalese democracy in more than a decade, analysts say.
“Senegal is in a thick fog, with a lot of uncertainties,” said Alioune Tine, a law expert and founder of the AfrikaJom Center, a Dakar-based research organization. “It has become a police state and increasingly an authoritarian one.”
Police officers have been posted at several roundabouts in Dakar in recent months; temporary bans on motorcycles to prevent rapid gatherings of protesters have become a fixture in the capital; and protesters have faced a heavy-handed response from security forces, with clashes sometimes turning deadly. Protesters have also targeted police, attacked petrol stations and this week set fire to the home of Mr Sall’s chief of staff.
On Wednesday, riot police officers threw tear gas at lawmakers from the National Assembly who were trying to peacefully approach Mr Sonko’s home in Dakar. Police have also targeted foreign journalists who covered the episode, and dozens of members of Mr Sonko’s party have been jailed or placed under electronic surveillance.
Mr Sall’s opponents have accused him of repeatedly sidelining key opposition leaders, including Mr Sonko, who was barred from running in last year’s parliamentary elections by Senegal’s constitutional council. Current and former mayors of Dakar were also barred from running in the 2019 presidential election due to embezzlement convictions.
At a hearing last month, Mr Sonko’s prosecutor said he assaulted her five times in a massage parlor between late 2020 and February 2021 and threatened to kill her. The New York Times does not routinely name the accusers in rape cases, but Mr Sonko’s accuser, Adji Sarr, has been publicly identified and has given news interviews. She has been under police protection since 2021.
Gender-based violence has declined in Senegal in recent years, but it remains widespread, although rarely spoken of. About 30 percent of women ages 15 to 49 have experienced physical or sexual violence, according to a population and health survey. questionnaire released in 2017, with the highest rate, 34 percent, in the 25 to 29 age group. More than two-thirds never talked about it or sought help.
Many Senegalese say they do not believe the accuser.
Moussa Sané, a 46-year-old businessman, was present at the court on Thursday. He said he was not a Sonko supporter, but the verdict showed the political motive of the trial. “The government is doing its best to prevent Sonko from running in the next election,” he said.
Even as Ms Sarr went into great detail last week about the abuse she said she had experienced, Senegalese newspapers ran headlines containing lewd innuendo, comparing her testimony to pornography.
Marième Cissé, an expert on gender issues, said Senegalese society still blames the victims of sexual violence. The Sonko trial, she added, gave many Senegalese the impression that a serious crime like rape had been used for political purposes.
“That instrumentalization has minimized the seriousness of the accusation,” said Ms. Cissé, a researcher with the Dakar-based research organization Wathi. “It could discourage women from talking about the abuse they could face.”
Mr Sonko is widely regarded as Mr Sall’s biggest challenger in next year’s elections, although Mr Sall has not said whether he will run.
According to most legal experts, the Senegalese constitution prevents him from doing so: it limits presidents to two five-year terms, and Mr. Sall will complete his second term in February. But he has argued that a constitutional reform passed in 2016 has reset the constitutional clock and that if he wins next year’s election, another term would count as his second, not third.
Mr. Sall told The New York Times last year that there was “no legal debate” over whether he could walk, but that he had yet to make a decision.
Mr Tine, the rights expert, said a third term would be a clear violation of the Constitution.
Mady Camara contributed reporting.