Ousmane Sonko was not present on Thursday, March 30, to hear the judge sentence him to a two-year suspended prison sentence for “defamation” against the Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang. This time, he was not prevented from leaving his home by law enforcement, as was the case on March 15. According to his lawyers, who brandished a medical certificate during the hearing, the country’s main opponent could not travel for “health reasons”.
Since the previous hearing held on March 16, Mr. Sonko has complained that he was the victim of an “assassination attempt”. He appeared the same evening from a bed at the Suma Assistance clinic in Dakar, where he then remained hospitalized for five days. Law enforcement “sprayed liquid at point-blank range. An extremely toxic liquid that produces respiratory effects, effects on the eyes, effects on the skin, effects on the digestive system. These products, we don’t know exactly what they are yet,” he said.
According to him, biological analyzes were sent abroad to identify the nature of the product used. The results are expected in the coming days. A group of parliamentarians, including deputy and activist Guy Marius Sagna, filed a complaint against various state authorities for “attempted poisoning and assassination of Ousmane Sonko, his lawyer Me Ciré Clédor Ly and deputy Guy Marius Sagna. »
Faced with these repeated accusations, “the public prosecutor at the Dakar court self-seized” and an investigation was opened and entrusted to urban security, according to Ibrahima Bakhoum, public prosecutor at the Dakar Court of Appeal. He believes that he has not obtained “from the medical profession relevant elements that can inform us about the reality or not” of an “assassination attempt”.
Mr. Bakhoum went on to detail how investigators identified a person seen in video handing a liquid-soaked scarf to Mr. Sonko. A scene that takes place in the crowd: the opponent, seated in his car, is on his way to court, accompanied by many activists who are seen dispersed with tear gas by the police.
“harmful substance”
“If there has been harm to the physical or health integrity of Mr. Sonko, the only track” is that a “person gave, at the scene of the demonstrations, a scarf containing a liquid”, indicates Mr. Bakhoum . Since then, this individual who claims to be an activist of Mr. Sonko’s party has been “pending referral” for alleged acts of “administering a substance harmful to health”, he adds.
But for Ousmane Sonko, there is a mistake about the culprit. “The person arrested is a little brother” and this man “only held out a handkerchief soaked in vinegar” to counter the effect of tear gas. He is not an “ordinary citizen.” It is an element of the BIP [Brigade d’intervention polyvalente, elite police unit] that I myself saw spraying the liquid, “he said.
This is not the first time that Ousmane Sonko has said he has been the victim of an assassination attempt. Since 2021, his party The African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef) has repeatedly denounced attempts to “poison” its leader, who believes he is the target of relentless power. Charges swept away by the executives of the ruling coalition. With the presidential election to be held in less than a year, the political climate is increasingly tense. President Macky Sall refuses for the moment to say whether he will run for a third term and Mr. Sonko, a popular tribune with nationalist speeches, appears to be his most serious rival.
Could the “attempted assassination” case, which is making headlines in the press, settle after the opponent’s two-month suspended prison sentence? By not making the president of Pastef ineligible, it could announce the beginning of a calm. Appeasement will depend on the decision of the Court of Appeal, which Minister Mame Mbaye Niang has decided to seize. But also from another file: Mr. Sonko is also charged in a case of rape on Adji Sarr, a massage parlor employee. He continues to denounce a plot to remove him from the presidential race. Nevertheless, he lifted the call to demonstrate throughout the national territory on April 3, the eve of the Senegalese national holiday.
