Activist Ba Diakhate and preacher Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane are still in detention after attacking the Prime Minister on social media and his recent comments on homosexuality. The two men are under investigation for “spreading false news” and “offending” the head of government. The prosecutor will have to decide tomorrow whether to open legal proceedings or release them. Their arrest is controversial.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
Attack on freedom of expression for some. Salutary intervention of justice in the face of very defamatory remarks, for others. This double arrest following public statements by opponents – the first since a new team was elected at the head of the country – divides the Senegalese.
Arrested on Monday by the criminal investigations division, activist Ba Diakhaté attacked Ousmane Sonko in a video. In offensive terms, he accuses him in particular of being homosexual. The preacher Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Ndao, who was placed in police custody on Tuesday, is also accused of spreading false news and insulting the Prime Minister, after the publication of another video in which he accuses to Ousmane Sonko for being complacent towards homosexuality. All after public statements by Ousmane Sonko on the subject, during the visit of left-wing opponent Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Dakar.
In Senegal, defamation and the dissemination of false news are punishable by prison sentences. In the ranks of the opposition, many people denounce this arrest and plead to preserve the freedom of democratic debate.
And for their part, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International are calling on the authorities to stop arresting people in cases of defamation, regardless of the seriousness of the comments made, and to decriminalize these offenses.
I think this arrest is excessive. It is a political fight that we will wage with the necessary political arguments.
Opposition and NGOs react to this double arrest