In a narrow room in the Apix city, a neighborhood in the suburbs of Dakar, a few politicians and members of civil society surround the mother of Pape Abdoulaye Touré, an activist, sympathizer of the opponent Ousmane Sonko. Interned in a medical prison unit after being beaten by gendarmes during his arrest on June 2, his requests for provisional release rejected, those around him rely on a prayer session for him to regain his freedom after more than a hundred days of detention.
Like him, many people arrested during the riots of March and June 2023 in Senegal or in connection with their political activities are awaiting a continuation of their legal proceedings. There are nearly 500 according to the judicial authorities, a thousand according to the Pastef party (African Patriots of Senegal for work, ethics and fraternity).
“In Dakar, for the most part, they are all under investigation,” explains Me Amadou Diallo, lawyer for several detainees. The capital concentrates the majority of people incarcerated following the various demonstrations organized on the sidelines of the legal cases concerning Ousmane Sonko. While most of the trials held outside the capital ended in mass acquittals or light sentences, in Dakar, only minors have so far been judged in flagrante delicto.
The adults remain accused of criminal association “in connection with a terrorist enterprise” or even “participation in an insurrectionary movement”, criminal charges for which preventive detention can be unlimited. The public prosecutor had already set the tone in June by declaring “to opt for the full rigor of the law in prosecutions”.
The uncompromising line of power
Following the sentencing on June 1 of Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison in the Sweet Beauty case where he was accused of rape by a young masseuse, riots left twenty-three dead according to Amnesty International. The prosecution has since appealed several of the rare provisional releases granted to certain detainees.
At the beginning of September, part of the Senegalese press believed in an easing of tension after the release of more than a hundred detainees. The results of mediation? No, we assure the Ministry of Justice. It was simply the end of the maximum period of preventive detention for these people arrested for offenses of participation in prohibited demonstrations in March, when the trial of Ousmane Sonko for defamation against the Minister of Justice was to be held. Mame Mbaye Niang tourism.
Finally sentenced on appeal to a six-month suspended sentence in this case then in June for “corruption of youth”, the opponent arrested on July 28 then charged with several charges including calling for insurrection saw his party dissolved during his detention. In reaction, the leader of the ex-Pastef began a hunger strike, “suspended” on September 2 after more than a month. The government has not deviated from its intransigent line.
A sign of a justice system that does not seem ready to let go of its supporters’ cases, the number 2 of the ex-Pastef, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has seen his legal file increase. The party’s general secretary detained since April, notably for contempt of court, now faces the same charges as his leader. A situation also shared by Fadilou Keïta, another Pastef executive, imprisoned since December 2022 and today accused of various criminal offenses linked to terrorism.
“There will be no trial.”
Expected by the detainees, their families but also a large part of the Senegalese public, the organization of a trial does not seem to be a priority for the judicial authorities. “Once in prison, the idea of ??one day being on the stand didn’t even cross our minds,” laughs one of the detainees arrested in March and recently released. “Once under instruction, all that remained was to wait for the moment when our exit would be decided,” he adds.
Papis Ndjim is convinced that “there will be no trial”. His brother Hannibal, supporter of Ousmane Sonko and famous activist on social networks, is being prosecuted for financing terrorist activities and is recovering from a thirty-three-day hunger strike against his “arbitrary” detention since February. “I myself have been on provisional release since 2019 after participating in a march,” he explains, seeing behind the long periods of investigation “a desire to silence” opponents.
For the moment, the appearance before the courts of Mr. Sonko and his relatives is not on the judicial agenda, while the presidential election scheduled for February 2024 is looming. As a matter of urgency, the opponent’s defense appealed on September 14 to the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States. His lawyers hope to have the dissolution of his party annulled and its removal from the electoral lists suspended, which would jeopardize its chances of competing in the next election.
