Courthouse in Senegalese capital, Dakar
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AFP
Senegal
The trial of Senegalese opposition chief Ousmane Sonko on rape charges resumed in a court in Dakar on Tuesday though he failed for the second time running to back the complaints.
There became as soon as a solid security presence within the capital amid fears of protests which obtain flared sporadically since the opposition chief and presidential candidate became as soon as first detained in 2021.
Sonko has been charged with rape and making dying threats in opposition to an employee of a beauty salon in Dakar.
He denies all wrongdoing asserting the trial is a political space aimed at scuttling his voice for the 2024 presidency. The executive has rejected the accusation.
On Friday, the opposition occasion chief talked about he would back Tuesday’s listening to if his security is at risk of be assured. His attorneys verbalize he didn’t receive a summons to seem in court.
“So, that’s why on the present time the attorneys intervened to claim within the foundation there became as soon as this ingredient, this irregularity. And then there’s also the very fact that there were security considerations which intended that Sonko may well well now not reach, despite the very fact that he wished to,” talked about his lawyer, Massokhna Kane.
In court on Tuesday, Sonko’s attorneys requested one other adjournment, while the lawyer for faded salon owner, Ndèye Khady Ndiaye, who is accused of complicity within the alleged rape, requested for extra preparation time.
When the prosecutor pushed aside their calls for, both events determined to withdraw from the case.
“The total defendants are free, there is in actuality no urgency to rob a survey at this case on the present time. So, what came about is, the total attorneys, both those of Ndèye Khady Ndiaye and of Ousmane Sonko, determined to withdraw from the room,” talked about Ndiaye’s lawyer, Macodou Ndour.
A conviction for Sonko may well well build an quit to his plans to go again for president. He came in third within the 2019 election in opposition to incumbent Macky Sall.
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