Court jails opposition politician for six months in Senegal

Barthelemy Días, the Mayor of the Dakar commune of Sicap-Mermoz has been sentenced to six months in prison today.

He was also fined 100,000 CFA francs, for “contempt of court; incitement to disturb public order; and discrediting a judicial decision.”

The prosecutor had asked for two years imprisonment, but the court of flagrant offences in Dakar, presided over by Justice Yakham Keita, jailed the opposition politician for six months.  Días was arrested and held since March 30, shortly after the jailing of his close political ally, former Dakar mayor Khalifa Ababacar Sall.  

Dais had reportedly verbally attacked the judges in the media, before calling on the people to “take to the streets to challenge” the verdict.  Dais was defended by well-known Senegalese lawyer Alhaji Diouf, who has lamented his client’s sentencing.  

Opposition politicians have, meanwhile, condemned this latest jailing within one month in Senegal of another opposition leader, which ruling coalition supporters are saying was in response to the “politics of insults and denigration” Dais engaged in. It would be recalled that Sall was accused of mismanagement of public funds, forgery and falsification of records, and sentenced to five years in prison, fined five million CFA francs and the seizure of one fifth of his assets.  

Sall’s prosecution and eventual conviction after a judicial process which lasted nearly two years was described as “politically motivated” by observers.  At the time of his conviction and imprisonment, Sall was a member of the National Assembly in Senegal, following his election in the 2016 legislative elections in Senegal.  

Both Sall and Dais have joined Senegalese opposition forces confronting the ruling coalition in Senegal, with Sall said to have declared his intention to contest as a candidate in the February 2019 presidential election in Senegal.  According to pundits and observers, Sall a popular Dakar mayor was believed to pose a serious threat to the re-election of President Mack Sall, who will seek a second term in next year’s election.