2023-06-22 20:05:38
A complaint has been filed in France and a request for an investigation submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Senegalese President Macky Sall for “crimes against humanity”after the worst unrest Senegal has seen in years.
“It’s just ridiculous”, commented to AFP the Senegalese president, who was in Paris on June 22 for the summit for a new global financial pact.
French lawyer Juan Branco presented at a press conference the content of the 170 pages of the complaint filed the previous evening in France before the crimes against humanity unit of the Paris court, as well as the request for investigation at the ICC.
“This approach will lead to consequences for the people targeted for the rest of their lives, because the crimes that have been committed are imprescriptible”affirmed Master Branco, who is one of the lawyers of the Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko.
These procedures for “crimes against humanity” also target Senegalese Interior Minister Antoine Diome, General Moussa Fall, commander of the Senegalese gendarmerie, as well as a hundred “other individuals”and relate to the period from “from March 2021 to June 2023”.
The June 1 sentencing of Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison in a sex scandal sparked the worst unrest Senegal has seen in years. The clashes caused at least 16 deaths according to the authorities, 23 according to the NGO Amnesty International and 30 according to the opposition.
A third term for Macky Sall?
The conviction of Ousmane Sonko makes him currently ineligible for the 2024 presidential election. A popular figure among young people and disadvantaged backgrounds, the opponent cries conspiracy and remains blocked by the security forces at his home in Dakar, since May 28.
Macky Sall, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019, maintains the vagueness on his desire to run for a third term in 2024. The hypothesis of a candidacy meets strong opposition in the name of respect for the Constitution.
In March 2021, unrest – already around the person of Ousmane Sonko – had left at least 12 dead in Senegal. Since these troubles of 2021, “no investigation has been carried out (in Senegal) and no criminal prosecution”castigated to AFP Alioune Sall, deputy of the Senegalese of the diaspora and coordinator in France of the Pastef, the party of Ousmane Sonko, who was alongside the lawyer Juan Branco. “More than two years later, we deemed it necessary, as a political party and as Senegalese, to continue the fight on the international level, since the Senegalese State, which is supposed to guarantee the fundamental rights of its nationals , don’t”he said.
“Exactions”
During the June 2023 unrest, videos and testimonies showed men in civilian clothes, armed and in pick-up trucks, chasing protesters.
The pro-Sonko accuse the presidential camp of having paid these “nervis” to lend a hand to the police and gendarmes and subdue the protesters. The presence of these armed men, relayed by numerous local and international media, has been denounced by human rights defenders.
During the press conference on June 22, videos and photos, some of them unbearable, showing demonstrators killed or very seriously injured during the June unrest, were broadcast. The images were provided by counsel for Ousmane Sonko.
According to the procedures initiated the day before, these “crimes against humanity” have been “committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population” Senegalese.
Macky Sall and Antoine Diome have “ordered and supervised the commission” of these crimes “against unarmed demonstrators since March 2021”, claims claim. They are accused of having targeted in particular supporters of Pastef and the opposition coalition “Yewwi Askan With”.
“4,500 pieces of evidence”
Master Branco claims to have been the recipient of “more than 4,500 pieces of evidence”. The lawyer and his team selected “710 pieces of evidence of abuses” of the Senegalese power, to serve as support for the request for an investigation at the ICC.
Juan Branco claims to have established “the murder of 50 people” between March 2021 and June 2023, and several thousand arbitrary detentions and attacks on life and injuries. Still according to Ousmane Sonko’s lawyer, “the presidency of the Republic, itself, as an institution, has put in place particularly massive arms orders, the progress of which we have traced”he claimed, and he cites as evidence “the delivery of 104 tons of weapons to the presidency in the second half of 2022”.
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