Forty degrees of fever, vomiting, loss of consciousness and intensive care. The report from the head doctor of the prison administration, dated October 24, concerning the state of health of Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, is more worrying than what the authorities had previously let appear. Arrested at the end of July, notably for calling for insurrection and endangering state security, the detainee resumed his hunger strike on October 17 to contest his incarceration, after having already been admitted to intensive care in August .
According to the correspondence from Colonel Abdoulaye Diagne, director of the prison administration, addressed to the Minister of Justice, Aïssata Tall Sall, which leaked Thursday, October 26 to the press, he “makes delusional and incoherent comments”. The same evening, the public prosecutor reacted by announcing in a press release the opening of an investigation “to identify the authors of this publication”. “In addition to the violation of the detainee’s rights, these particularly serious facts constitute a whole range of offenses relating to the dissemination of personal data. »
“Catastrophic” state of health
“These communications make it possible to establish that the Senegalese authorities are informed in every detail of their situation (…). We warn the leaders of Senegal: their responsibility is engaged. In the event of an “incident”, there will be no impunity”, his French lawyer, Juan Branco, spoke on October 26 on X (ex-Twitter).
“The State does not dispute the content of this document. This means that he was aware of the catastrophic state of health of Ousmane Sonko,” adds Me Bamba Cissé, lawyer for the leader of the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef), dissolved July 31. Reacting to the prosecutor’s press release, the council considers that “the question of the investigation is a backlash”. “My client is not asking for his personal data to be protected by the State,” he insisted.
Lawyers and relatives of Ousmane Sonko have been warning about his state of health for several days already. Me Ciré Clédor Ly announced on October 23 that he had fallen into a coma before regaining consciousness the same day. “I have a special permit to go see Ousmane Sonko, but I was not able to visit him given his fragile state of health,” testifies Amadou Ba, member of the opponent’s cabinet.
Avalanche of legal proceedings
Candidate for the February 2024 presidential election, Ousmane Sonko accuses the president, Macky Sall, of wanting to exclude him from the vote through repeated legal proceedings. Sentenced to two years in prison for “corruption of youth” in his absence, on June 1, the leader of Pastef was removed from the electoral lists. The decision was annulled by a judgment of the court of Ziguinchor, a city in the south of the country of which he is mayor, but this annulment has not yet been applied. The general directorate of elections still refuses to distribute its sponsorship forms, used to collect the signatures necessary to validate a candidacy, judging that the decision is “not final”, since the State’s lawyers have filed an appeal before the Supreme Court.
Another sword of Damocles hangs over Ousmane Sonko’s head: the Supreme Court must soon rule definitively on his six-month suspended prison sentence handed down on appeal of the defamation trial brought by the Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang, which could cause him to lose his civil rights.
“King or kingmaker”
Despite these difficulties, Birame Khoudia Lo, deputy secretary general of Pastef, maintains that Ousmane Sonko remains their one and only party candidate for the presidential election of February 2024. “We are fighting to have the sponsorship forms, because he has been unjustly and arbitrarily arrested and removed from the electoral rolls. He will be king or kingmaker,” he continues, while assuring that the party “does not have a plan B.”
Five other members of Pastef have however collected sponsorship forms, including El Malick Ndiaye, Abass Fall, Birame Souleye Diop, Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Guy Marius Sagna, MP currently on tour in Europe. None of them has declared themselves a candidate, but they could theoretically take the plunge if the party changed strategy.
For the moment, Pastef is asking its supporters to keep their sponsorships and wait for instructions, until all possible recourses are exhausted to restore his civil rights to Ousmane Sonko with a view to participating in the presidential election. “Even if another candidate represents Pastef in 2024, it will be a transitional candidate and president. From the hospital, Ousmane Sonko gives his instructions, which we respect,” says Baba, a young activist from Pastef, for whom Guy Marius Sagna would be the most legitimate alternative solution.
