Imprisoned opposition leader freed as Senegal election heats up
Their release follows weeks of crisis after President Macky Sall postponed the February 25 presidential vote.
Opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko waves to supporters during an opposition meeting two days before his trial in Dakar on March 14, 2023. / Photo: AFP
Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and his second-in-command, presidential candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye, were released from prison in Dakar, 10 days before the country's election.
"They came out in front of us," lawyer Cheikh Koureyssi Ba said on Thursday, as an AFP journalist witnessed a motorcade exiting the prison through a large crowd.
Sonko was at the heart of a bitter two-year stand-off with the state and has been in prison since July.
The legal case against him, along with economic and social tensions, led to deadly unrest between 2021 and 2023.
The opposition figurehead came third in the 2019 presidential election but was disqualified from running in 2024.
Sonko then endorsed Faye, who has also been in prison since April 2023, to replace him on the ballot.
The release comes after President Sall proposed a bill granting amnesty for acts committed in connection with political demonstrations since 2021.
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