Senegal: the Commission responsible for deciding on the parliamentary immunity of O.
Sonko is in place
Audio 01:25
(illustration) Ousmane Sonko, Senegalese opponent, president of the PASTEF / the Patriots party, is in the crosshairs of justice.
An ad hoc committee has just been appointed to decide on the lifting of his parliamentary immunity.
RFI / Charlotte Idrac
Text by: RFI Follow
5 mins
In Senegal, the procedure on the request for lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Ousmane Sonko is ongoing.
The National Assembly yesterday ratified the composition of the ad hoc committee which will be responsible for ruling.
Now validated, the commission has started to work.
But it is contested by opposition MPs.
Publicity
Read more
with our correspondent in Dakar,
Charlotte Idrac
The plenary session, which met without an audience due to the pandemic, was stormy on Wednesday.
Opposition deputies left the hemicycle before the vote on the composition of the ad hoc committee.
This is the case of Aïda Mbodj, from the group of non-registered people.
“
The prosecutor, in his indictment, targeted X;
So I think that X had to be identified with enough charges and building blocks to say it's Ousmane Sonko ... At the moment, we can't associate with what appears to be carnage!
», She explains.
False arguments for the deputy Abdoulaye Wilane, of the coalition in power Benno Bokk Yakaar.
While the ad hoc committee includes two members of the Freedom and Democracy parliamentary group, and one of the non-attached, he denounces a “
theatricalization
” on the part of certain elected members of the opposition.
“
But they are pranksters!
They took part in the Law Commission, they took part in the Conference of Presidents, they helped to furnish the composition of the ad hoc Commission, they participated in all the work!
... It's staging ...!
"
The commission will request the hearing of Ousmane Sonko
After ratification, the
ad hoc committee of 11 members
set up its bureau.
She will ask for the hearing of Ousmane Sonko, before presenting her report on the lifting or not of the parliamentary immunity of the deputy, in plenary session.
Recall that Ousmane Sonko, deputy and president of the Pastef / the Patriots party, who came third in the last presidential election, is accused of rape with death threats on an employee of a massage parlor in Dakar.
He had refused to attend the convocation of the gendarmerie, invoking this parliamentary immunity.
►
To read also
: in Senegal, the opponent Ousmane Sonko summoned to the gendarmerie following an accusation of rape
In a statement, several human rights organizations say they are "
concerned about the climate of tension that has reigned in Senegal
" since the start of this affair.
RADDHO, the Senegalese League of Human Rights and Amnesty International Senegal condemn "
any use of violence as well as threats and insults against journalists and any person exercising their rights to freedom of expression
".
►
Also to listen
: Sonko affair: "There may be a two-tier justice" in Senegal
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Senegal
Justice