Two members of the Senegalese opposition party, announced on Friday, that the authorities have arrested Ousmane Sonko without disclosing any specific reason justifying the detention. The spokesperson for Sonko’s party, Husseinou Lèye, stated that “Ousmane Sonko has been arrested, gendarmes were in front of his house,” while Gabriel Ndiaye, a protocol officer for Sonko, clarified that “elements from the gendarmerie came to take him.”
According to Agence France-Presse, a senior security official confirmed the arrest without revealing the reasons behind it, stating that the arrest occurred on Friday afternoon.
French lawyer Juan Branco, who represents the Senegalese opposition leader, tweeted on the platform X (formerly known as Twitter), “Ousmane Sonko has just been arrested in the courthouse prison.”
Earlier, on Monday, police barriers that were erected in front of the opposition leader’s house since May 28 were removed for reasons related to “public order and national security.”
The Senegalese judiciary sentenced Sonko to two years in prison on June 1st, in a sexual assault case, making him ineligible to participate in the elections, according to his lawyer and legal experts. Additionally, on May 8, he was sentenced to six months in prison with a suspended sentence on appeal for defamation, a penalty that disqualifies him from running for the presidential elections, according to many observers.