DAKAR (Reuters) – West Africa’s regional court docket on Friday sided with the Senegalese authorities in its authorized battle in opposition to jailed opposition chief Ousmane Sonko, who filed a lawsuit claiming the state violated his human rights.

Sonko, 49, has confronted a sequence of court docket circumstances over the previous two years over accusations of defamation and rape, which he denies.

He was arrested in July for revolt, the federal government dissolved his occasion and he was faraway from the electoral roll, stopping him from operating in subsequent February’s presidential election.

Now, a court docket within the West African political bloc ECOWAS has dismissed Sonko’s claims that the state handled him unfairly.

“The court docket dominated that Ousmane Sankoh’s rights had not been violated and rejected his request,” mentioned his lawyer, Ciré Clédor Ly.

Sonko’s plight has develop into a flashpoint in Senegal, sparking riots this yr that left not less than 16 individuals lifeless and the worst in many years within the largely peaceable West African nation.

His supporters say the fees are politically motivated and a part of a sequence of assaults by President Macky Sall in opposition to political opponents, which Sall denies. Sankoh went on starvation strikes and was generally hospitalized.

Final month, a court docket within the southern metropolis of Ziguinchor, the place Sonko is mayor, ordered the electoral fee to place him again on the electoral roll. Senegal’s Supreme Court docket is anticipated to rule on the matter afterward Friday.

(Reporting by Ngouda Dione; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Enhancing by Edward McAllister and Angus MacSwan)

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