untitled design

Senegal: Sonko finally agrees to respond to the judge’s summons

Demain, at the time contained in the 9 am summons (GMT and local), we will answer, listen to the investigating judge at the Dakar courthouse, declared late in the evening to the press Ousmane Sonko who thus listened to the advice of representatives of civil society, religious circles and opposition parties. “We will go to the judge, but it is not an abdication,” he said, quoted by AFP. The 46-year-old MP has been the subject since the beginning of February of a complaint for rape and death threats filed by an employee of a beauty salon in which he was going to get a massage to, he says, relieve his ailments back. “This file will be easily dismantled in front of any court”, he assured, while saying “not to have confidence in this justice” which, in Senegal, “never decides in another direction than the will of the prince”.

His parliamentary immunity lifted Sonko will respond to the judge’s summons

During his long speech, Ousmane Sonko, who denies these accusations, once again multiplied the attacks against President Macky Sall, accusing him relentlessly of having hatched a plot to remove him from the next presidential election in 2024. The Senegalese president recently denied having anything to do with the MP’s troubles. Ousmane Sonko, who came third in the 2019 presidential election, had announced in recent days that he would not respond to the judge’s summons, despite the lifting of his parliamentary immunity by the deputies last Friday.

But he said Tuesday evening to have “listened” for three days to the personalities of various backgrounds who have, in their great majority, advised him to go to the judge. If refused, the judge would order his arrest, which his supporters could oppose, he said. The risk would then be of being “sentenced to six months in prison” for “rebellion” and of being struck off the electoral lists, he continued, saying he wanted to show strategy to avoid the “traps” of his opponents. “We can lose feathers, but Macky (Sall) can lose his power” in this case, he predicted, calling for “mobilization” beyond his camp. His religious guide, Serigne Abdou Mbacké, said earlier that he had asked him to go to the judge “in the name of peace and stability in the country”.

A scenario similar to that of Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall

“Appeasement depends on Macky and his plotters,” said the deputy, accusing the head of state of playing his tricks, because he “knows that we can easily beat him” if the election takes place. the regular one. The complaint against Mr. Sonko has drawn comparisons with the woes of Karim Wade, son and former minister of ex-President Abdoulaye Wade, and Khalifa Sall, ousted mayor of Dakar, both hit with convictions for financial embezzlement and prevented from running for the presidential election in 2019. Mr. Sall, 59, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019, maintains the vagueness on the possibility of a candidate for a third term, despite the limit of two introduced after a constitutional revision approved in 2016.


You may also like

BlackRock CEO is bullish on Bitcoin
Top News
David

BlackRock CEO is bullish on Bitcoin

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink expressed “pleasant surprise” at the interest among retail investors in the company’s spot Bitcoin ETF in

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular