The security detail set up by the authorities around the Dakar home of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, candidate in the 2024 presidential election, has been lifted.
Mr. Sonko had been blocked by the security forces at his home in the capital, “sequestered” according to him, since May 28th.
On June 1rst, Mr. Sonko was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in a vice case, a verdict which, according to his lawyers and legal experts, makes him ineligible to stand for election.
His conviction sparked the most serious unrest in Senegal for years in early June, which left 16 people dead according to the authorities and around thirty according to the opposition.
In a subsequent interview, the Pastef leader predicted “indescribable chaos” if he is prevented from standing in the next presidential election.
Interior Minister Antoine Diome had justified the “restrictions” imposed on Mr. Sonko by the latter’s calls for “resistance”.
“Someone who gets up and says he’s going to do a caravan (a procession), that he’s going to do rallies without (prior) declaration… we see deaths, are we going to let him go around Senegal, do rallies and count the dead behind? We can’t”, he said.
The opponent, who was nominated as a candidate by his party, was also given a six-month suspended prison sentence on May 8th during an appeal for defamation, a sentence widely perceived as making him ineligible for the presidential election. But he has not yet exhausted his appeals to the Supreme Court.
