Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko said on Monday (May 1) that analyzes by foreign laboratories revealed the “toxic and deadly” nature of the product which, according to him, was sprayed on him by the police, which he accused of having attempted to assassinate him.
In mid-March, Mr. Sonko said he felt ill from tear gas he said was fired by security forces during his forcible transfer to the Dakar court, where his defamation trial was being held for accusing the Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang, of embezzlement – ??trial rescheduled for May 8 after several dismissals. After this incident, the opponent said he spent five days in a private clinic in Dakar for treatment. He had indicated that samples had been taken from his clothes and sent abroad to verify their content.
“We sent the elements [taken from his clothes] to two laboratories” outside Senegal and “in two countries, including France, for toxicological expertise”, Mr. Sonko said, without further details, during a meeting. press conference in Dakar. The analyzes “concluded the presence of a gas used as a riot control”, he added, speaking in French and then in Wolof. “It is a product that has toxicity” and can cause “immediate death, intoxication, skin infection, eye irritation” and “respiratory tract”, he said, basing himself, according to him , based on expert advice.
“It was premeditated”
“All the elements are still in [a] laboratory and well guarded. The judge can write [to the laboratories] for a second opinion. There was an assassination attempt. I consider it premeditated,” continued Mr. Sonko, who last week announced a complaint in connection with the case.
On April 26, Senegalese government spokesman and trade minister Abdou Karim Fofana ruled that Mr. Sonko was accusing the police “without providing proof”. “Even in the worst dictatorships, you don’t poison opponents live on phones and in the media,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Sonko, a candidate for the 2024 presidential election, is also to be tried for alleged “rape and death threats” on May 16, following a complaint by an employee of a beauty salon, a a lawyer for the complainant told AFP on Saturday. The opponent denounces “a plot” aimed at removing him from the ballot, which the authorities deny, which accuses him of provoking demonstrations to evade justice.
