SENEGAL’S public prosecutor yesterday announced seven new charges, including fomenting insurrection, against opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, adding they were unrelated to a case that sparked deadly protests last month.

The firebrand politician, a thorn in the flesh of President Macky Sall, has faced a string of legal woes, which he claims are aimed at keeping him out of politics.

His sentencing last month in a moral corruption case sparked clashes that left 16 dead according to the government, 24 according to Amnesty International, and 30 according to Sonko’s Pastef party.

Yesterday, the public prosecutor read out a list of charges to be made against Sonko over comments he had made, rallies he had held, and other episodes since 2021, including an incident at his home a day earlier that led to his arrest.

In addition to calling for insurrection, the new charges include undermining state security, acts aimed at jeopardising public security and creating serious political unrest, criminal association with a terrorist body and theft.

“This arrest has nothing to do with the (moral corruption) proceedings, for which he was tried in absentia,” prosecutor Abdoul Karim Diop said in Wolof.

Sonko was arrested on Friday for allegedly stealing the phone of a gendarme officer and issuing a subversive message on social media, according to the prosecutor.

He is being held in custody.

He is scheduled to be interrogated by a judge tomorrow, one of his lawyers told AFP. The judge will then decide whether or not to lay charges.

On Friday afternoon, Sonko said on social media that security forces stationed outside his home were filming him. 

He said he had taken one of the phones and demanded the images be deleted.

“I ask the people to stand ready to face this endless abuse,” Sonko wrote.

Sonko was on June 1 sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for morally corrupting a young woman, which makes him ineligible to stand in next year’s presidential election.

He was blocked in his home by security forces at the time of the sentencing but was not jailed following his conviction.

His lawyers said in a statement Friday evening his arrest on new allegations cancelled the verdict and sentence issued in the moral corruption affair because he had been tried in absentia.

A former civil servant, Sonko rose to prominence in the 2019 presidential election, coming third. 

He has portrayed Sall as a would-be dictator, while the president’s supporters say Sonko has sown instability.

Sall in early July eased tensions in the normally stable West African nation by announcing he would not seek a controversial third mandate, following months of ambiguity and speculation about his intentions. – AFP, July 30, 2023.