Senegal resumes trial of opposition leader in absentia

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - Judges at the Senegalese High Court in Dakar resumed the trial Tuesday in absentia of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko on rape charges amid fears of protests.

Sonko, who is the head of the PASTEF-Patriots party, faces rape charges and making death threats against Adji Sarr, an employee of a beauty salon in the capital.

The trial opened May 16 but was immediately adjourned until May 23 after Sonko boycotted the hearing.

Judge Issa Ndiaye decided Tuesday to go ahead with the trial, despite requests for postponement by defense lawyers.

Defense lawyers had requested a postponement of the hearing following their client's absence.

Sonko’s lawyer, Cire Cledor Ly, claimed key defense witnesses were absent and there were “gross irregularities in the procedure.”

Sonko, 48, has admitted to having gone for a massage in the salon to relieve chronic back pain but claims the “trial is politically motivated to foil his presidential bid in the 2024 elections.”

He emerged third in the 2019 election against incumbent President Macky Sall.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, salon owner and co-defendant in the case, Ndeye Khady Ndiaye, said Sarr had never told her that she had been raped.

But Sarr told the court she had been threatened by Sonko and she would be killed if she reported the case.

Sonko, who was sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence in March for defamation and insults against the tourism minister, is said to be in Ziguinchor, several hundred miles from Dakar.

The Ziguinchor area was the scene of clashes between police and opposition leader’s supporters last week, which led to the death of three people ahead of the May 16 proceedings.

Last week, education authorities in Senegal ordered suspension of schools for almost one week in the southern region of Ziguinchor, where Sonko is mayor, amid fears of new protests against the trial.

Authorities said teaching was suspended throughout the region in schools and vocational training centers until May 25.