Senegalese courts on Thursday released two journalists and an opposition candidate who had been summoned over comments challenging the prime minister and the police force, their lawyers said, as criticism of the government mounts.
Journalist Cheikh Yerim Seck and Bougane Gueye Dany, who is standing in upcoming parliamentary elections, were questioned by investigators after contesting figures given by Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko on the country’s financial situation.
At a press conference last week, Sonko described Senegal’s economic situation as “catastrophic” and accused the previous administration of fiddling financial figures.
Both Seck and Gueye Dany were released on Thursday, their respective lawyers Baboucar Cisse and Amadou Sall told AFP.
Journalist Kader Dia had also been called in for questioning over comments about migrants found dead off Senegal’s coast and calling for a probe into a suspected case of corruption within a structure of the national police force, his lawyer El Hadj Diouf said.
Diouf confirmed to AFP on Thursday that his client had been released.
“I’ve always had confidence in my country’s justice system,” Dia told journalists on the Senegal 7 TV station after his release.
The government, which took office in April, has faced growing criticism from the opposition and rights groups after a series of convictions, detentions and police summons.
In a statement published on Thursday, Amnesty International and five other civil society and rights organisations expressed “deep concern about the systematic summoning of political figures and journalists, and the legal proceedings brought against them for spreading false news and defamation”.
They said that since April they had documented six cases of politicians, journalists and activists being prosecuted for offences of opinion following comments made on public interest matters.
These cases are “reminiscent of the repressive practices that we denounced under previous regimes” and that the current leaders and their supporters have suffered, the statement added.
Hundreds of people were imprisoned during three years of protests between 2021 and 2024 under former president Macky Sall.
Current President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Sonko were themselves detained for several months, and had vowed to end the manipulation of the justice system for political gains.
The recent string of legal proceedings is “in no way consistent” with this commitment to change, the joint statement said.
The opposition coalition Takku Wallu Senegal, which is formed around the former presidential party, has accused the authorities of trying to “muzzle the opposition and the press” and “transform our democratic system into an authoritarian one”.
Senegal is due to hold snap legislative elections on November 17.
The government had not responded to AFP’s requests for comment by Thursday evening.
(AFP)
