DAKAR, Senegal
Juan Branco, a French lawyer helping to represent Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, has been detained on charges of conspiracy, spreading fake news and endangering public safety, his lawyers announced on Sunday.
Branco was arrested near the
border with Mauritania and transferred to Dakar on Saturday, five days
after Sonko was charged with fomenting insurrection and
placed in detention.
Sonko has faced multiple
charges in the past two years, which he claims are designed to keep him out of
politics as Senegal prepares
for a presidential election in February 2024.
Branco is one of several
lawyers defending the opposition figure.
He appeared before a judge in
Dakar on Sunday and was charged with "attacks, conspiracy, dissemination
of fake news and actions liable to compromise public safety or cause serious
political disturbance", the lawyers representing him said.
He has been wanted in Senegal
since mid-July, when authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest
in connection with deadly riots that broke out in June after Sonko was
sentenced to prison for "corrupting youth".
During the unrest, Branco
announced that he would seek to take Senegal's President Macky Sall and
other prominent members of his government to the International Criminal Court
for alleged crimes against humanity.
Branco's French defence team
claimed that the charges against him were politically motivated and said they
had asked the UN's working group on arbitrary arrest to investigate.
Branco was not in Senegal when
the warrant was issued, but made a surprise appearance at a press conference
held by Sonko's defence team in Dakar on 30 July, having entered the country in
secret.
"We came here to tell you
that we're not afraid," Branco posted on Twitter at the time.
The lawyer then took flight
and is understood to have hired a fishing boat to take him across the Mauritanian
border when he was arrested.
Branco, who also has Spanish
nationality, is well-known in France as a left-wing political activist, media
commentator and former candidate for the hard-left party La France
Insoumise (France
Unbowed).
He has worked on several
high-profile legal cases, including defending members of the Yellow Vest
protest movement.
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