A criminal court in Dakar, Senegal on Thursday sentenced opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, to two years in prison on charges of “corrupting young people”” but acquitted him of rape and issuing death threats.
The criminal division also sentenced Mr Sonko’s co-accused, Ndèye Khady Ndiaye, the owner of the beauty salon where Mr Sonko was accused of repeatedly abusing a female employee, to two years’ imprisonment.
The “corruption of youth”, which consists of poaching or encouraging the debauchery of a young person under the age of 21, is an offence under Senegalese law, and not a crime like rape, a lawyer present at the hearing, Ousmane Thiam, told AFP.
Mr Sonko would have been stripped of his electoral rights if he had been convicted in absentia of a crime such as rape.
However, the reclassification of the offence as a misdemeanour under the electoral code appears to maintain the threat of ineligibility for Mr Sonko and his ability to stand in the 2024 presidential election.
This could prevent him from participating in February elections, according to Senegal’s electoral law.
“With this sentence Sonko cannot be a candidate,” said one of his lawyers, Bamba Cisse.
University law professor Ndiack Fall said Sonko could demand a re-trial if he gives himself in to authorities.
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The rape case has triggered violent protests in the West African country since 2021. Sonko’s supporters denounce the charges as politically motivated. The government and the justice system deny this.
Violence erupted at a central university campus, where protesters set a car alight and threw rocks at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas.
A former tax inspector who came third in the last election, Sonko has tapped into frustrations with President Macky Sall that have grown since he was elected in 2012.
Critics say Sall has failed to create jobs and has stifled opposition criticism amid rumours he may seek to bypass presidential term limits and run again next year. Sall has neither confirmed nor denied this.
Sonko has garnered strong support among the young, many of whom have responded to his calls to take to the streets to protest against his judicial problems, prompting security crackdowns that have led to deaths.
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Demonstrations are not uncommon in Senegal and typically increase around elections. But Sall’s second term has been particularly turbulent for a country usually viewed as one of West Africa’s strongest democracies.
Separately, Sonko is appealing against a six-month suspended prison sentence for libel. The implications of that case for his presidential bid are not yet clear.
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