ECOWAS Court rules that Senegal did not violate the rights of opponent Ousmane Sonko

The ECOWAS Court ruled this Friday that Senegal did not violate the rights of Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, a decision that jeopardizes his chances of running in the 2024 presidential elections.

“Senegal has not violated any of its rights,” the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice said in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

The decision comes on the same day that Dakar’s Supreme Court is expected to rule on Ousmane Sonko’s reinstatement on the voter list for the 2024 elections.

Sonko has been in conflict for more than two years with the Dakar government, which he accuses of trying to stop him from running in the 2024 presidential election.

Last month, a court in Ziguinchor, a city where Sonko has been mayor since 2022 and whose state borders Guinea-Bissau to the south, overturned Sonko’s removal from the electoral roll.

The government appealed this decision.

Sonko, 49, was found guilty of “corruption of a minor” on June 1, 2023, and sentenced to two years in prison.

Senegalese prosecutors began charging him in March 2021 with “rape of a minor” and death threats against former beauty salon employee Aja Sarra, a legal minor who was under 21 at the time of the events. but the criminal chamber of the Dakar High Court rejected this charge.

A juvenile corruption conviction in June, which reduced to two years what would have been a 10-year prison sentence, nevertheless led to riots that the government said killed 16 people; about thirty, according to Sonko’s party.

At the end of July, the leader of the African Patriots of Senegal for Labor, Ethics and Fraternity (PASTEF) party was arrested on other charges, including incitement to insurrection, criminal association in connection with a terrorist project and attack on state security.