The defamation lawsuit brought by minister Mame Mbaye Niang against opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was settled by the Dakar Criminal Court. Judge Mamadou Yakham Keïta pronounced, on March 30, 2023, a verdict condemning the defendant to a 2-month suspended prison sentence and to pay the civil party the sum of 200 million francs. The defendant had accused the former Minister of Youth of prevarication of the sum of 29 billion francs in the management of Prodac, a program under the supervision of his department.
Ousmane Sonko can consider himself lucky to have been sentenced to a much lower sentence than the « usual rate » applied to journalists who can invoke the public’s right to information, freedom of expression and who strive to provide evidence for their assertions.
He was therefore tried with more leniency than any journalist or other political figure brought before this court for similar facts. For example, Amath Dansokho, Minister of State to President Macky Sall, was more heavily sentenced on April 3, 2015, following a complaint by former President Abdoulaye Wade, for defamation. Similarly, journalists who were brought before the Criminal Court for the same acts of defamation, by the same plaintiff on the same Prodac affair, had received much heavier sentences. The case law of the Dakar Criminal Court is, moreover, consistent from this point of view. The rare exceptions were that journalists even had to be sentenced to prison terms. But Ousmane Sonko and his supporters reacted to attack Justice who would have thus rendered a verdict under the dictation of the executive power. Would they be choosy or would they thumb their nose at the judicial institution and their world or would they deceive the world? The events of this famous trial sufficiently shows that the denial of justice should be sought on the side of the defendant.
The State Committed hara-kiri: Judge Keïta Spontaneously Proposed Himself
Through these columns, we have systematically defended magistrates and the judicial institution from all attacks. Indeed, Justice remains the dam or the rampart for the Rule of Law and the best protection for the citizen. However, it must be noted that the course of the Mame Mbaye Niang-Ousmane Sonko trial could not have been more curious. The matter was dispatched with suspicious eagerness. Judgment was pronounced on the bench; Judge Keïta did not consider it appropriate to put the case under advise and to prepare the reasons for the Tribunal’s decision. He seemed so in a hurry to get it over with that he didn’t even take a minute to confer with his two assessors who were visibly taken aback when the presiding judge announced the verdict. No one could understand the very unusual, not to say strange approach, especially since the case had long taken the public into suspense and more than thirty lawyers had been appointed, for one or the other party, to plead forcefully arguments of law and facts.
The judge brushed aside the indictment of the prosecution and did not consider it necessary to waste his time to question the good faith of the defendant or any other element of appreciation, such as the manifest refusal of the defendant to come to trial. and his acts and public statements challenging the authority of Justice with insults and threats against magistrates. The tumults caused in the country by this trial, causing deaths and serious and important damage or disturbances, did not seem to bother the judge. The latter, who inherited the file the day before the trial in the evening, did not even consider it necessary to take time to impregnate the file which, however, was the subject of a preliminary investigation and a detailed indictment by the prosecution; the public prosecutor who was able to target offenses related to defamation such as forgery and the use of forgery in public writings. In other words, none of this mattered in Mamadou Yakham Keïta’s decision. It was like a mock trial: everything was prepared, a scenario written in advance or a verdict already agreed somewhere.
The judicial authorities feel they have been cheated. Indeed, Mamadou Yakham Keïta was never expected to lead the hearing. The case fell to the Correctional Chamber presided over by Judge Papa Mohamed Diop. But the latter was subjected to group fire from the defendant and his counsels who tried, in vain, through several requests for recusal for supposed acquaintances or family ties between judge Diop (never established) with the complainant. All the requests for recusal were considered fallacious by the Court of Appeal of Dakar which rejected them. Nevertheless, a few hours before the trial, we will learn of the voluntary withdrawal (?) of judge Pape Mohamed Diop. One of Ousmane Sonko’s counsels, Lawyer Ousseynou Fall, was suspended by the Bar for acts of disrespect towards Judge Diop and the Court during the hearing on March 16, 2023.
This is how his colleague, Mamadou Yakham Keïta, very distant from defamation proceedings, spontaneously offered to lead the hearing. This judge is currently president of the Chamber of Collective Proceedings and Seizure of Property at the High Court of Dakar. In other words, he is known to be, as we say in legal jargon, a « civilist » (specialist in civil law), rather than a criminal lawyer. In any case, he had not yet had the opportunity to preside over a correctional hearing at the level of his jurisdiction, at least for more than five years that he has been in office. Rather, he was in flagrante delicto. This is perhaps why he judged this case as a case of flagrante delicto, with the speed or the expeditious nature of this type of procedure.
A Mission of the General Inspectorate of the Administration of Justice (IGAJ) Is Needed
It is clear that there are real grounds for suspicion or suspicions of a twisted neck, a scheme or maneuvers to arrive at this verdict. This feeling is so strong that before the hearing, one of the defendant’s lawyers, in this case Lawyer Cheikh Khoureyssi Bâ, had spilt a jubilant tweet at the announcement of the change of president of the hearing. Was the judge on a mission or had he devoted himself to a political cause? We will learn after the fact his family ties with leaders of the Pastef party, and even ties by marriage with Ousmane Sonko. The bewilderment is even greater when we discover, the day after the verdict, that this judge regularly posted propaganda favorable to Ousmane Sonko and the Pastef party on his “Facebook” wall. Worse, in a post, dated February 21, 2018, Mamadou Yakham Keïta teased Minister Mame Mbaye Niang. The many « posts » created a buzz and caused great embarrassment among the magistrates. To say that despite all this, he wanted to judge the case!
Faced with the huge outcry, Judge Mamadou Yakham Keïta ended up cleaning the sulphurous posts on his « Facebook » page. The pot of roses has already been discovered because the screenshots are in all smartphones. Moreover, this last gesture on the “Facebook” page can turn out to be an admission that the judge blames himself for misconduct.
It remains to be seen what is the share of responsibility of the head of the jurisdiction, President Moustapha Fall, in what appears to be a judicial forfeiture? Indeed, due to the circumstances of the withdrawal of Judge Pape Mohamed Diop, he was, at short notice, the best placed or indicated to lead the hearing. What pledges or guarantees of neutrality or loyalty could Mamadou Yakham Keïta have given him? It should be noted that many magistrates and lawyers, amazed to learn that the hearing was going to be chaired by Judge Keïta, did not hide their astonishment. Judge Keïta has never made a secret of his political preferences, we are told. A magistrate who knows a background relating to his private life, told us that Judge Keïta would be quite capable of purely and simply releasing Ousmane Sonko instead of sticking him with 2 years of imprisonment. That is to say!
The discomfort is deep in the Court and it is up to the judicial authorities to clarify things, to locate the responsibilities. President Moustapha Fall should be the first person questioned. And if indeed he was not complicit, in any way, in the action of his colleague, he should denounce the situation to the Minister of Justice or the First President of the Supreme Court, and therefore request the opening of a formal investigation by the General Inspectorate of the Administration of Justice (Igaj). Dysfunction, levity, laxity, naivety or thuggish behaviour? Who knows?
Did Mamadou Yakham Keïta Hinder the Action of Justice?
The question becomes legitimate. This unprecedented judgment and sulphurous scent risks constituting a big pebble in the shoes of Lady Justice. The prosecution and the civil party have announced that they are appealing the judgment, but the handling of the appeal could prove problematic. If the judge pursued a logic of obstruction or protection of the defendant Ousmane Sonko, he would drag his feet to deliver the act of judgment, an essential or key piece of the appeal file.
A situation of blockage would ensue, but if necessary, he will have truly risked his career to save the head of a politician. Would the stake be worth the candle? Moreover, the public authorities should themselves take their responsibilities so as not to let the State commit hara-kiri in this way. It is important to know how to be respected. The lesson of history is that ultimately, the actions and acts of manoeuvring and manipulation of the judicial institution would no longer be the fault of the government, but of the opponents. The worm of opposition is indeed in the fruit.
POST SCRIPTUM: The National Army must also get to the bottom of it, and as soon as possible
The political leaders of the opposition, Yewwi askan wi (Yaw), had announced the holding of political demonstrations on April 3, 2023, as a prelude to the celebration of the National Day. The initiative had moved or shocked people. But Yaw officials backpedalled by cancelling the event, saying they made the decision “after discussions with senior officials”. The indication in their press release, published on March 31, 2023, appears surprising and deserves to be noticed. Ousmane Sonko and his followers are known to lie, deceive and manipulate, but invoking intelligence with Army officers should not be ignored as casual.
The National Army took offense. In a press release, the General Staff of the Armies immediately fumed, to “invite political actors of all stripes and civil society to keep the National Army out of the political debate, for the interest of the Nation. The National Army intends to keep its republican posture and devote itself to its sovereign missions.”
However, this does not seem sufficient, because the allusions and invitations to the National Army are recurrent and unequivocal on the part of Ousmane Sonko and his supporters. It is important to know which sectors or military actors would be in a posture or logic of familiarity with these undisguised desires for a seizure of power by force of the guns. Ousmane Sonko, his supporters and eminent political and civil society figures have publicly applauded coups in the sub-region and even praised them. It is therefore appropriate to conduct a rigorous investigation to get to the bottom of their evil intentions. In any case, it would be a cynical act of treason, on the part of any officer or non-commissioned soldier, to put himself in a logic of complicity or connivance with Ousmane Sonko.
This politician never ceases to insult the Army, to the point of forbidding himself from bowing before the remains of soldiers killed by separatist rebels or even from being moved by the humiliation and the taking of hostage of soldiers by men of rebel leader Salif Sadio. No one is unaware that he has resorted to rebels of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (Mfdc) to attack the institutions of the State of Senegal and its people. When I had alerted to this state of affairs, since the terrible events of March 6, 7 and 8, 2021, with their procession of 14 dead, and several times thereafter, some accusing me of bad faith and a will to damage to national unity. We have seen the result, people, arrested during the demonstrations in Dakar and Mbacké, openly claim to belong to the Mfdc and confess their sinister intentions. Once again, I’ve been proven right in front of the detractors!
By Madiambal DIAGNE / mdiagne@lequotidien.sn
- Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH / Serigne S. DIAGNE
