Critics denounce the “authoritarian drift” of the Dakar regime. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna is called on to urgently intervene to “ensure the release” of a French woman arrested in Senegal while participating in a demonstration, in an open letter co-signed by two left-wing deputies and her lawyer.
“We would like to draw your attention to the alarming situation of Coline Fay,” write ecologist Aurélien Taché, the Insoumise Sophia Chikirou, and lawyer Juan Branco in this letter dated Thursday. According to them, the young woman was arrested on November 17 in front of the Supreme Court of Dakar, “while she was peacefully participating in a demonstration.” She is accused of “conspiracy against the authority of the state,” her lawyer claims, which exposes her to a heavy sentence.
A climate of “political tension”
Authorities in Dakar have not responded to requests for information on the conditions of her arrest and what she is accused of. “Faced with this worrying situation, we call for your urgent intervention to ensure the release of Mrs. Fay and the protection of her fundamental rights,” add the deputies and the lawyer in their letter. According to the lawmakers and the lawyer, this arrest “is part of a climate of political tension in Senegal” and “authoritarian drifts exercised by the regime in Dakar, under the presidency of Macky Sall, towards dissenting voices and popular movements, especially those associated with the political opposition led by Ousmane Sonko.”
Coline Fay’s lawyer, Juan Branco, is also the lawyer of Ousmane Sonko, who is currently imprisoned and wishes to run for president in February 2024. He was found guilty in June of debauchery of a minor and sentenced to two years in prison. He was imprisoned at the end of July on other charges, including incitement to insurrection, association of wrongdoers in connection with a terrorist enterprise, and endangering state security.
He denounces in all these cases a plot to prevent him from participating in the presidential election, which the government denies. A Senegalese judge on Thursday ordered his reinstatement on the electoral lists, from which he had been removed after his conviction in June. But time is running out for the opposition figure who must collect endorsements and submit his candidacy for the presidential election by December 26.
