Senegal: intellectuals challenge Macky Sall on respect for rights and justice

Supporters of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko during a protest in Dakar, March 14, 2023. © Sylvain Cherkaoui / AP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In an electric political context less than a year before the presidential election, more than a hundred intellectuals signed a platform addressed to the Senegalese president. Fatou Sow, Boubacar Boris Diop, Sophie Bessis and Mamadou Diouf challenge the Head of State on a "violation of rights" and the "instrumentalization of justice",

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With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac

They are academics, writers, or journalists from Senegal, the United States, France, or Canada... The signatories say they speak "beyond their ideological, political or cultural differences and differences". They condemn "the restrictions on the freedom of movement of citizens" and the "continual instrumentalization of justice".

Among them, Amadou Tidiane Wone, former Senegalese Minister of Culture: "The acts that are taken suggest that there is a takeover of justice, especially the prosecutor's office. We have the growing feeling that there really is a stranglehold on a number of procedures, particularly political ones.

For the signatory personalities, "a real threat weighs on the stability and social peace of the country". They launched an "appeal to reason" to President Macky Sall. "The initiative, from our point of view," continues Amadou Tidiane Wone, "must come from the head of state, because he has exorbitant powers that allow him to say: 'Ok, let's calm down, this is what we must put on the table as a modus operandi for a constructive dialogue'. By pulling on the rope, it may be able to break.

The authorities have regularly denied any interference in judicial proceedings. After three postponements, Ousmane Sonko's trial for defamation is scheduled for 30 March.

Ousmane Sonko's Pastef party denounced on Wednesday the arrest of the boss of the Suma Assistance clinic, where the opponent was hospitalized after clashes on his way to court on March 16. No reason has been specified at this stage by police or judicial sources. The national secretary for communication of Pastef, El Malick Ndiaye, was also summoned to the Urban Security this afternoon.

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Read on on the same topics:

• Senegal
• Macky Sall