The Franco-Spanish lawyer Juan Branco, who was actively wanted in Senegal, was imprisoned on Sunday morning August 6 in Dakar, after being arrested in neighboring Mauritania the day before, lawyers announced.
Mr. Branco refused food and drink. He decided to remain silent and not to allow anyone to assist him, including before the judge who charged him and imprisoned him, said in a message sent to Agence France-Presse Me Ciré Clédor Ly, who was waiting for him with another lawyer when he arrived in the capital.
The judge charged him with attack, conspiracy, dissemination of false news and acts and maneuvers likely to compromise public security or cause serious political disturbances, also declared Mr. Ciré Clédor Ly and the Parisian lawyers of Mr. Branco. Acts of attack are punishable by penalties of up to life imprisonment, added Me Ciré Clédor Ly. The latter specified that Mr. Branco was detained in a prison in the center of Dakar.
“These charges betray the true nature of this procedure, which has no other purpose than to put an end to Juan Branco’s legal battles,” his French lawyers said. They announced the immediate referral to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention against “this procedure seriously infringing on individual freedoms”.
“Kidnapped” by hooded men
Mr. Branco made a name for himself in Senegal by taking part in the defense of Ousmane Sonko, an opponent engaged since 2021 in a standoff with power and justice which has given rise to several episodes of deadly violence.
After his client was sentenced to two years in prison for “corruption of youth” in a sex scandal, Mr. Branco announced on June 22 that he had filed a complaint in France and a request for an investigation at the Criminal Court. (ICC) of The Hague against the Senegalese President, Macky Sall, for “crimes against humanity”.
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 Mr Sonko.
Mr. Branco had created the surprise, on July 30, by bursting into the middle of the press conference held by Senegalese lawyers for Mr. Sonko in Dakar. Smuggled into Senegal, he has since been actively sought after. A sign of the importance given to the subject, the Senegalese Minister of the Interior, Antoine Félix Abdoulaye Diome, announced his arrest on Saturday evening during a debate in the National Assembly.
Mr. Branco says he was “kidnapped” about 100 kilometers from the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, by hooded men without any distinctive sign and who injured his wrists, reported Me Ciré Clédor Ly.
Photos released Saturday by the local press and on social networks showed Mr. Branco aboard a canoe, dressed in khaki fisherman’s clothes.
Mr. Sonko, candidate for the presidential election of 2024, was arrested and imprisoned at the end of July in Dakar, on various charges including calls for insurrection. His party, the Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef), was dissolved.