Deadly protests rock Senegal as opposition chief sentenced to jail, 9 killed

By Reuters: Nine of us had been killed in Senegal on Thursday in clashes between riot police and supporters of opposition chief Ousmane Sonko after a courtroom sentenced him to 2 years in jail, casting extreme doubt on his possibilities of working for president subsequent yr.

Sonko, 48, did not attend the listening to over an alleged sexual assault. The justice ministry acknowledged the opposition chief could now be taken to jail at any time. Police remained stationed spherical his dwelling Dakar as unrest flared throughout the capital and elsewhere after the choice.

Sonko was accused of raping a woman who labored in a therapeutic therapeutic massage parlour in 2021, when she was 20, and making lack of life threats in opposition to her. He denies wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.

A jail courtroom cleared Sonko of rape, nevertheless found him accountable of a separate offence described throughout the penal code as immoral behaviour within the path of individuals youthful than 21.

“With this sentence Sonko cannot be a candidate,” acknowledged one in every of his attorneys, Bamba Ciss, citing Senegal’s electoral regulation.

Sonko’s PASTEF get collectively acknowledged the choice was part of a political plot and generally known as on residents in an announcement to “stop all activity and take to the streets”.

Nine of us had been killed throughout the protests that broke out in elements of Dakar and completely different cities after the choice, Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome acknowledged on state television throughout the early hours of Friday.

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Earlier, thick black smoke had billowed from a central faculty campus in Dakar, the place protesters set a lot of buses alight throughout the afternoon and threw rocks at riot police who responded by firing tear gas.

Government spokesperson Abdou Karim Fofana acknowledged security forces had the state of affairs beneath administration throughout the capital.

Several social media and messaging platforms had been restricted in Senegal late on Thursday – a switch “likely to significantly impact the public’s ability to communicate,” the Netblocks internet observatory acknowledged.

University regulation professor Ndiack Fall acknowledged Sonko could demand a retrial if he turns himself in to authorities.

The case has triggered sporadic violent protests throughout the West African nation since 2021. Sonko’s supporters denounce the charges as a ploy to cease him from working in elections scheduled for February. The authorities and the justice system deny this.

A former tax inspector who bought right here third throughout the last election, Sonko has tapped into frustrations with President Macky Sall which have grown since he was elected in 2012.

Critics say Sall has didn’t create jobs and has stifled opposition criticism amid rumours he would possibly search to bypass presidential time interval limits and run as soon as extra subsequent yr. Sall has neither confirmed nor denied this.

Demonstrations aren’t uncommon in Senegal and normally enhance spherical elections. But Sall’s second time interval has been notably turbulent for a country usually seen as one in every of West Africa’s strongest democracies.

Separately, Sonko is attention-grabbing in opposition to a six-month suspended jail sentence for libel – an offence he moreover denies.