Franco-Spanish lawyer Juan Branco, expelled Monday from Senegal where he had been imprisoned, urged Senegalese President Macky Sall on Tuesday to release “all political prisoners” in this country, during his first speech since his return to France.
“I invite Macky Sall to make my release the first, to open the door to the release of all political prisoners to allow this democratic transition that the Senegalese people are asking for”, declared the lawyer at a press conference this Tuesday in Paris.
Expelled Monday from Senegal
Targeted since mid-July by an investigation by the Senegalese justice, Juan Branco was arrested on Sunday in Mauritania, after several days of research. Handed over to the Senegalese authorities, he was charged with “attack, conspiracy, dissemination of false news and acts and maneuvers likely to compromise public security or cause serious political disturbances”, according to his lawyers.
He was expelled from Senegal on Monday and arrived in France on Tuesday morning. In Senegal, he takes part in the defense of Ousmane Sonko, an opponent engaged since 2021 in a showdown with power and justice which has given rise to several episodes of deadly violence. “I invite (Macky Sall) to put an end to the violence he is inflicting on Ousmane Sonko, to let him stand freely in the coming elections”, hammered Mr. Branco, in reference to the presidential election scheduled for February 2024 in Senegal. , to which Mr. Sall is not a candidate.
Ousmane Sonko began a hunger strike on July 30. Referring to his state of health, Juan Branco clarified that the opponent remained “hospitalized, suffering in particular from kidney failure following his hunger strike”. “He had a severe hypoglycaemic crisis which led him to feel unwell and to be admitted to the emergency room; his situation is stabilizing”. “We asked Ousmane Sonko to end his hunger strike,” the lawyer said. “This man forms a community and allows thousands of others to find a form of hope and a sense of collective struggle, we need him”.
“Trace of heavy torture”
Juan Branco “wished” that his “first words would be heard by the detainees of Rebeuss prison” – in the center of Dakar, where he himself was imprisoned – who “in a space intended to accommodate 600 people are 3,000, including 700 political prisoners piled up (…), forbidden to sleep lying down, many locked up without trial for months because they were wrong to think, to militate and to fight”, he affirmed.
He said he slept in this prison “alongside bodies which bore the traces of heavy torture, scars linked to police violence”.
Returning to the circumstances of his arrest in Mauritania, the lawyer claimed to have been “kidnapped by hooded men” who “hid his face”. According to him, these men “brought him to the Senegalese borders to deliver (him) to men without uniforms in unregistered pick-ups, without respecting the least of the fundamental rights that apply to every man”.
Asked whether in the current circumstances he was going to continue to defend Mr. Sonko, Juan Branco replied: “I received instructions from him again today regarding this press conference (…) He asked me to explain my situation to you so that it can serve as an illustration of what thousands of Senegalese are going through who have not had my luck”.