Since his return to Dakar, the leader of Pastef has been cut off from the world. A situation that prompted his lawyer Me Ciré Clédor Ly to write a letter of complaint to the Minister of the Interior, Antoine Félix Diome. The lawyer in court talks about facts that infringe on the fundamental rights of the defense and labor rights.
According to Seneweb, the lawyer claims to have visited his client’s home nine times in the past three days, to be able to communicate with him for professional reasons. But these attempts were unsuccessful.
Me Ciré Clédor Ly denounces the systematic refusal to be able to contact his client, despite the professional needs of the latter. In his letter, he also mentions a press release from the Ministry of June 1, 2023, announcing restrictions on freedom of communication and opinion, justified by the need to preserve public order and the safety of property and people. Since then, assures Me Ly, his isolation from his client would have intensified, as would the isolation of the other members of Sonko’s legal team, who were victims of violence.
The lawyer recalls that the right of defense is absolute and that it cannot be subject to any restriction, even in “dictatorial” and “fascist” states. “I have been dismissed 9 times, which beyond an infringement of the rights of the Defense also infringes the economic and social rights of the legal profession in so far as it constitutes an obstacle to the exercise of the profession, to the right and freedom to work”, he assures.
Further on, Me Ciré Clédor Ly expresses his incomprehension regarding the prohibition, in a “State declaring itself democratic”, for a citizen to visit or be visited by his lawyer for professional reasons.
The purpose of this initiative, according to the defender, is to ensure that the necessary measures are taken to allow Ousmane Sonko’s lawyers to freely exercise their advisory work and to have access to their clients.
He hopes for a quick and favorable response to his complaint, stating that Senegal cannot deny its international human rights commitments, as well as the national and international provisions that protect the rights of citizens.
By recalling Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Peoples of 1789, the lawyer considers that the public force is instituted in the interest of all and not in that of a few to whom it is entrusted.
