A criminal court in Dakar sentenced Senegalese leading opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, to two years’ imprisonment on a charge of “corrupting young people.
He was being acquitted of rape after he was earlier accused of raping a lady in beauty salon.
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 misdemeanor under the electoral code appears to maintain the threat of ineligibility for Mr Sonko and his ability to stand in the 2024 presidential election.
The case has triggered violent protests, with Sonko’s supporters denouncing the charges against him as politically motivated, which the government and justice officials deny.
Reporting from Dakar, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque said Sonko would “probably spend the night in jail”.
“The judge will ask for a mandate for security forces to bring him to jail. All eyes are on Ousmane Sonko’s house. He says that he is living almost under house arrest. There’s a heavy security presence around his home. The next step is trying to get him out of his home and into jail”.
Reporting by Africanews.
