Senegal sends off Sonko’s French lawyer Juan Branco

A Senegalese judge on Monday 7 August 2023 placed French-Spanish lawyer Juan Branco, who was indicted a day earlier, under judicial supervision ahead of his expulsion to France, his lawyer and a senior justice ministry official told AFP.

Branco, who is one of the lawyers defending the Senegalese opposition politician Ousmane Sonko, was arrested Friday in Mauritania and handed over to Senegalese authorities.

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“He is in a police station and will be taken to the airport,” Robin Binsard, one of Branco’s Paris-based lawyers, told AFP. “He is exhausted but relieved to be released”.

WHEN WAS BRANCO TAKEN OUT OF PRISON?

Binsard said Branco was taken out of prison on Monday morning and presented to a judge, who placed him under judicial supervision. A senior official from the justice ministry confirmed the information.

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Branco had refused to drink and eat after his arrest. He was indicted on Sunday with charges including conspiracy, spreading false news, acts likely to compromise public security or cause serious political unrest, and contempt of court, according to his lawyers.

Branco gained notoriety in Senegal after joining the legal team of Sonko, a firebrand politician and President Macky Sall’s fiercest critic, who has faced a series of legal troubles since 2021.

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On June 22, Branco said he had filed a criminal complaint against Sall in France for “crimes against humanity” and had requested a probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

His initiatives also named Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome and gendarmerie chief General Moussa Fall among more than 100 others accused.

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INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANT

The move sparked Senegal’s ire, with Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall lashing it as “childish and puerile”. Senegalese prosecutors on July 14 filed an international arrest warrant against him.

He made a surprise appearance at a press conference with Sonko’s other lawyers in the capital Dakar on July 30. The conference followed Sonko’s arrest two days earlier on fresh charges. The Senegalese government on Thursday described Branco as a publicity-hungry lawyer shirking his responsibilities.

“Senegal should not be the sounding board for a lawyer seeking recognition in his own country” and who “dreams of Victor Hugo”, said government spokesman Abdou Karim Fofana.

KIDNAPPING BY HOODED MEN

One of Branco’s Dakar-based lawyers, Cire Cledor Ly, said he was “kidnapped” about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, by hooded men who injured his wrists.

According to Branco’s Parisian lawyers, he was arrested on board a boat in Mauritanian waters. He intended to contact the Mauritanian authorities in the hopes they would arrange his repatriation to France or Spain, they said.

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© Agence France-Presse