Popular Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison by a court in Senegal on Thursday for “corrupting the youth”, but he was acquitted of the charge that started it all: multiple rape and death threats. The ruling makes Sonko ineligible for the 2024 presidential election, but his lawyers say they will not give up until Sonko is fully acquitted.
He was not initially accused of ‘corrupting the youth’. The public prosecutor last week demanded 10 years in prison against the popular opposition politician for raping and death threats against an employee of a mass gas salon in Dakar, but asked the judge to sentence Sonko “at the very least” for “corrupting the youth”. Adji Sarr, the woman who accused Sonko, was 19 years old at the time of the affair. The owner of the conscious massage parlor Sweet Beauty was acquitted of complicity in rape, but she was also sentenced to two years in prison for “inciting immorality”.
Sonko was accused of raping the employee Sall five times in 2020 and 2021 and threatening her with a firearm. Sonko has denied the allegations from the start and speaks of a political conspiracy. He accuses President Macky Sall of trying in this way to exclude him from the presidential election next February, for which Sonko wants to run
Ineligible under Senegalese electoral law
A lot depended on Thursday’s verdict. Sonko is President Sall’s most feared opposition politician and a conviction makes him ineligible under Senegalese electoral law. Sonko can still demand a re-conviction, but he must first go to prison. He lost his right to an appeal because he was not present on the day of the trial itself. According to his lawyers, he had not received a subpoena, which the prosecutor contradicted.
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The former tax advisor turned whistleblower from Casamance is very popular among Senegalese youth because he promises to break with what they see as the great evils of their country: corruption, unemployment and a continued dependence on former colonizer France. For example, he wants to abolish the CFA, the currency that France imposed on its former colonies in Africa. To his opponents, Sonko is a radicalist and a Salafist. For example, as president he promised to implement stricter gay legislation – homosexuality is already a criminal offense in Senegal, with a prison sentence of one to five years.
In presidential elections in 2019, the now 49-year-old Sonko finished third. In those elections, the two main opposition leaders at the time were unable to participate in the presidential elections due to legal procedures. It was also said to be a political reckoning.
With the cooperation of Eva Oude Elfrink