Lawyer Juan Branco was arrested on Saturday August 5 in Rosso, on the border between Senegal and Mauritania, according to a Senegalese police source. Photos published in the Senegalese press show him aboard a canoe, dressed in khaki fisherman’s clothes.
The Franco-Spanish, who is part of the team of lawyers for the Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, had created the surprise, Sunday July 30, by bursting into the middle of the press conference held by his colleagues in Dakar. Smuggled into Senegal, he has since been actively sought after.
After the sentencing of his client to two years in prison for “corruption of youth” in a sex scandal, Juan Branco announced on June 22 that he had filed a complaint in France and a request for an investigation at the International Criminal Court. (ICC) of The Hague against the Senegalese President, Macky Sall, for “crimes against humanity”.
On its way to Dakar
On July 14, the Senegalese justice responded by announcing its intention to issue an international arrest warrant against the French lawyer for “crimes and misdemeanors”, in connection with the riots that shook Senegal in June after the conviction of Ousmane Sonko.
According to the Senegalese media, Juan Branco is on his way to Dakar, where the prosecutor will have to decide on his expulsion to France or his placement in pre-trial detention. Several people suspected of having helped him during his stay are wanted.
On Friday, the lawyer Babacar Ndiaye, adviser to Ousmane Sonko and member of his party, was also arrested by the urban security of the central police station in Dakar. He is placed in police custody on the instructions of the Attorney General for harboring criminals in the context of the Branco affair.
Thursday, Alpha Bocar Khouma, mayor of Sangalkam, near Rufisque, was arrested. He would have, according to the Senegalese radio RFM, organized the accommodation of Juan Branco in a hotel at Lac Rose. A photo circulating on social networks shows him posing alongside the Franco-Spanish lawyer.