Prominent opposition figure arrested in Senegal after hinting Sall could back down and run in 2024

July 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Senegalese authorities have detained prominent opposition figure Birame Souleye Diop after remarks in which he said President Macky Sall may reverse his decision not to run for a controversial third term in 2024.

Diop, mayor of the town of Thies Nord, was arrested late on Tuesday for “offenses” against the president and “acts that compromise social peace”, a decision harshly criticized by the Yewwi Askan Wi opposition parliamentary group, according to the portal. Senegalese news Dakar Actu.

Yewwi Askan Wi has indicated that the opponent’s detention is “unconstitutional, arbitrary and abusive” and has stressed that “it flagrantly violates article 61 of the Constitution and the Internal Regulations of the National Assembly, which guarantees parliamentary immunity to a deputy “.

Sall announced last week that he will not run in the 2024 presidential elections. “Senegal is beyond me and is full of leaders who are also capable of pushing the country through the emergency,” he said, while defending that his candidacy would have been framed in the Constitution.

After that, the Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko affirmed that Sall “has abdicated in the face of popular pressure”, before advancing that he will run for president despite the sentences handed down against him, including one to two years in prison for “corruption of youth”.

The Senegalese opposition has accused the president of orchestrating a harsh repression against dissidents and supporters Sonko, whose lawyer, Juan Branco, accused Sall himself and his Interior Minister, Antoine Félix Diome, of launching a “generalized and systematically against the civilian population”.

Tension in the country peaked at the beginning of the month, with the death of more than 15 people due to the repression of protests in various cities of the country after a two-year prison sentence against Sonko for “corruption of youth” after being accused of rape and death threats, charges ultimately dismissed.