By Ebi Kesiena
Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko on Monday disclosed that he has started a hunger strike from custody after being arrested, stating that his arrest was all aimed at keeping him out of politics.
Earlier, Senegal’s public prosecutor had announced on Saturday seven new charges against the politician a vocal critic of President Macky Sall.
In a press conference on Sunday in the capital Dakar, Sonko’s lawyers said authorities had not respected his rights as his lawyers condemned his arrest.
While Sonko wrote “In the face of so much hate, lies, oppression, persecution, I have decided to resist, inviting “all political detainees” to join me on the strike’’ he said.
Also, present at the press conference was French national Juan Branco, to register his support to Sonko despite Senegalese prosecutors filing an international arrest warrant against him on July 14.
“We came here to tell you that we were not afraid.
“I swear to defend a man, Ousmane Sonko, whose body carries the hopes of an entire people, and therefore, of all humanity,” Branco said.
On June 22, Branco said he had filed a criminal complaint against President Macky Sall in France for crimes against humanity and had requested a probe by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
His initiatives also named Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome and gendarmerie chief General Moussa Fall among more than 100 others accused.
However, Sonko is scheduled to be interrogated by a judge this Monday.
Moral corruption case
Also, Sonko’s lawyers argued that his arrest on the new allegations cancelled out his conviction in a high-profile moral corruption case, as he had been tried in absentia.
According to Senegal’s penal code, if defendants who are tried in absentia are arrested within a certain limitation period, any conviction is automatically annulled unless they expressly agree to the sentence within ten days.
His sentencing to two years in prison on June 1st sparked clashes that left at least 16 dead.
The sentence makes him ineligible to contest next year’s presidential election.
But the prosecutor said his arrest on Friday and the new charges announced on Saturday are unrelated to the moral corruption case.
The new charges are over comments he has made, rallies he has held, and other episodes since 2021, including an incident at his home on Friday that led to his arrest.
They include calling for insurrection, undermining state security, criminal association with a terrorist body and theft.
On Saturday, a prominent Senegalese journalist and government critic, was also arrested and began a hunger strike, according to his lawyer.
