Despite a reaffirmed conviction for defamation, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko is pushing back, seeking to clear his name and reopen a politically charged legal battle.
On Tuesday, 1 July, the Supreme Court upheld a January 2024 ruling that found Sonko guilty of defaming former Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang. The court dismissed his legal team’s request for a constitutional review of the penal Code article used to convict him and maintained the 300 million CFA franc fine imposed on Sonko.
However, thanks to a sweeping amnesty law passed in March 2024—later amended in April 2025 by Senegal’s new parliamentary majority—Sonko remains eligible to participate in political life. The law nullifies legal consequences for politically motivated offences between February 2021 and February 2024, including the defamation charge that once cost him a shot at the presidency. Riding on this legal buffer, Sonko’s camp has now petitioned the Minister of Justice for a retrial, citing fresh evidence from the General Inspectorate of Finance that allegedly implicates Niang in financial mismanagement—evidence Sonko’s lawyers say vindicates his original claims. Whether the review proceeds now lies in the hands of the Justice Minister, who has no fixed timeline to respond.