A Dakar court prosecutor on Wednesday requested ten years of criminal imprisonment for rape against the Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, absent from a trial manipulated according to the latter by the power to prevent him from being a presidential candidate in 2024.
The judgment has been deliberated and the decision is expected on June 1, said the president of the criminal chamber on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in a climate of high political tension.
The complainant Adji Sarr had maintained her accusations the day before, claiming to have been raped five times by Mr. Sonko in a beauty salon in the capital where she worked. She candidly recounted the acts that Mr. Sonko, she claims, imposed on her between late December 2020 and early February 2021, until she filed a complaint that rocked the political world.
"If the rape does not carry your conviction", the prosecutor also requested five years of firm imprisonment for "corruption of youth".
The young woman of just over 20 years old also reported the death threats she says she received, another charge against the president of the Pastef-les Patriotes party who came third in the presidential election in 2019.
On this aspect of the case, the prosecution requested one year of imprisonment. The civil party had also claimed 1.5 billion CFA francs (2.3 million euros) from Mr. Sonko and Mrs. Ndèye Khady Ndiaye, the boss of the beauty salon.
Mr. Sonko, 48, very popular with young people, admitted to having gone for a massage to soothe chronic back pain. But he has always refuted the charges in the files of alleged rape and defamation and cried out in power's conspiracy to remove him from the presidential election. His defense withdrew after unsuccessfully asking for the trial to be postponed.
Saying he feared for his safety, Ousmane Sonko announced that he would no longer respond to court summonses without state guarantees for his physical integrity. The state has given no sign of having acceded to this requirement.
Mr. Sonko is presumed to be in Ziguinchor (South), a city of which he is the mayor and where he retired several days ago, hundreds of kilometers from Dakar. His supporters are mounting a tight guard around his home to ward off a possible attempt to bring him to court by force. Clashes with the police broke out on Tuesday evening, media close to the opponent reported.
This resounding trial is the epilogue of a soap opera that has held Senegal spellbound for more than two years. The stakes are as much criminal as political. Mr. Sonko's eligibility and ability to compete in 2024 depends on it.
Mr. Sonko's appointments with justice in this case, and another of defamation in which he has just been convicted and which could also deprive him of his electoral rights, have regularly given rise to incidents and clashes .
His opponents accuse him of relying on the streets to escape justice, or of being an agitator fomenting an "insurrectional" project.
Activity was once again slowed down in Dakar on Tuesday, schools announced that they would remain closed on Wednesday, and until at least Thursday morning in Ziguinchor. No significant disturbances were reported during the trial.
The trial opened on May 16 in a context of clashes and was postponed after a few minutes. In a court placed under high police protection, he ended up getting to the heart of the matter on Tuesday after the rejection of new requests for a postponement, with the reading of the indictment and the interrogation of the co-defendant of M Sonko, Ndèye Khady Ndiaye, boss of the beauty salon.
Five years of criminal imprisonment were required against Ms. Ndiaye for "complicity in rape" and one year of firm imprisonment for the dissemination of images contrary to morality and incitement to debauchery.
The boss of Sweet Beauté, in the very last weeks of her pregnancy, denied the facts. "Adji Sarr never told me about rape. She never told my husband about it," she said. She answered the questions alone, her lawyers having also left the room.
Adji Sarr's complaint temporarily put the issue of rape in the public square, where it was willingly passed over in silence. Adji Sarr has been attacked and threatened on social networks. But she always demanded justice.
Rape, criminalized since 2020, is punishable by ten to twenty years in prison
The arrest of Mr. Sonko in this case in 2021 had helped to trigger several days of riots which had left at least 12 dead.
05/24/2023 08:24:44 - Dakar (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
