A court docket in Senegal sentenced the nation’s main opposition determine to 2 years in jail on Thursday after discovering him responsible of “corrupting youth.” The ruling, which for now bars him from operating in future elections, throws the West African nation’s political future into uncertainty lower than a 12 months earlier than its subsequent presidential contest.

The opposition chief, Ousmane Sonko, was accused of raping an worker of a therapeutic massage parlor in Dakar, the capital, and issuing demise threats in opposition to her. The court docket acquitted him of these expenses, which he had denied and denounced as an try by Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, to sideline him.

But the conviction of “corrupting youth” — a cost regarding an accusation that he had a sexual relationship with the therapeutic massage parlor employee, who was underneath 21 on the time — renders him ineligible to run in subsequent 12 months’s election, a ballot that’s broadly seen in Senegal and broader West Africa as a take a look at of democratic values within the area.

Mr. Sonko can not routinely enchantment, as a result of he didn’t seem in court docket for the hearings or the decision, citing threats to his security. But Abdoulaye Tall, considered one of Mr. Sonko’s legal professionals, stated he may enchantment if he surrendered throughout the subsequent 15 days.

Clashes erupted between protesters and safety forces in Dakar shortly after the decision was introduced, together with close to town’s principal college, the place a number of protesters erected barricades and threw stones on the police, who responded with tear fuel. A couple of protesters have been injured.

There is not any public proof that Mr. Sonko’s case has been politically motivated, however some lecturers, human rights observers and most opponents of Mr. Sall have raised questions in regards to the lack of concrete proof and the tough therapy of Mr. Sonko all through the proceedings. They have additionally lately warned of a gradual erosion of democratic norms as a number of political opponents have been jailed and journalists arrested.

Senegal, a rustic of 17 million folks, has lengthy been hailed as a mannequin of political pluralism in West Africa, a area identified for coups and growing older leaders clinging to energy. Elections have been principally peaceable for the reason that nation turned unbiased from France in 1960, and their outcomes have normally been revered by all events. The United States and European international locations, in addition to China, maintain Senegal as considered one of their most dependable companions in West Africa.

Yet the battle across the political way forward for Mr. Sonko, 48, whose fiery rhetoric has made him well-liked amongst younger Senegalese, has turn into the president’s largest problem. In the approaching months, it may result in essentially the most critical take a look at confronted by Senegalese democracy in additional than a decade, analysts say.

“Senegal finds itself in a thick fog, with lots of uncertainties,” stated Alioune Tine, a rights knowledgeable and founding father of the AfrikaJom Center, a Dakar-based analysis group. “It has turned into a police state and, increasingly, an authoritarian one.”

In current months, law enforcement officials have been posted at a number of site visitors circles in Dakar; momentary bans on bikes to forestall fast gatherings of protesters have turn into an everyday fixture within the capital; and demonstrators have confronted a heavy-handed response from safety forces, with clashes at instances turning lethal. Protesters have additionally focused the police, attacked fuel stations and this week burned the home of Mr. Sall’s chief of workers.

Mr. Sonko’s destiny remained unclear as of Thursday. Riot law enforcement officials positioned close to his home in Dakar have been blocking entry, and on Wednesday had thrown tear fuel at lawmakers from the National Assembly who have been attempting to peacefully strategy it. The police have additionally focused overseas journalists masking the episode.

Opponents of Mr. Sall have accused him of repeatedly sidelining key opposition leaders, together with Mr. Sonko, who was barred by Senegal’s constitutional council from operating in final 12 months’s parliamentary elections. Dozens of members of his occasion have been jailed or positioned underneath digital surveillance. Current and former Dakar mayors have been additionally prohibited from operating within the 2019 presidential election due to convictions for embezzlement.

At a listening to final month, Mr. Sonko’s accuser stated he had abused her 5 instances at a therapeutic massage parlor between late 2020 and February 2021, and despatched her demise threats. The New York Times doesn’t routinely title accusers in rape circumstances, however Mr. Sonko’s accuser, Adji Sarr, has been publicly recognized and has given news interviews. She has been underneath police safety since 2021.

Gender-based violence has been lowering in Senegal lately, but it surely stays widespread, although hardly ever talked about. About 30 p.c of girls aged 15 to 49 have skilled bodily or sexual violence, in accordance with a demographic and well being survey launched in 2017, with the very best price, 34 p.c, amongst these ages 25 to 29. More than two-thirds by no means spoke about it or sought assist.

Many Senegalese say they don’t consider the accuser.

Moussa Sané, a 46-year-old businessman, attended court docket on Thursday. He stated that he was not a Sonko supporter however that the decision confirmed the political motive of the trial. “The government is trying its best to prevent Sonko from running in the next election,” he stated.

Even as Ms. Sarr detailed at size final week the abuse she stated she had confronted, Senegalese newspapers printed headlines with lewd innuendos, evaluating her testimony to pornography.

Marième Cissé, an knowledgeable on gender points, stated Senegalese society nonetheless put the blame on victims of sexual violence. The Sonko trial, she added, gave many Senegalese the impression {that a} crime as critical as rape had been used for political functions.

“That instrumentalization has minimized the seriousness of the accusation,” stated Ms. Cissé, a researcher with the Dakar-based Wathi analysis group. “It could discourage women from talking about the abuse they may face.”

Mr. Sonko has been broadly considered Mr. Sall’s strongest challenger in subsequent 12 months’s election, though Mr. Sall has not stated whether or not he’ll run.

According to most authorized consultants, the Senegalese Constitution prevents him from doing so: It limits presidents to 2 five-year phrases, and Mr. Sall is ready to finish his second time period in February. But he has argued {that a} constitutional reform adopted in 2016 reset the constitutional clock to zero, and that if he have been to run and win the election subsequent 12 months, one other time period would rely as his second, not third.

Mr. Sall advised The New York Times final 12 months that there was “no legal debate” over whether or not he may run, however that he had but to decide.

Mr. Tine, the rights knowledgeable, stated a 3rd time period would quantity to a transparent violation of the Constitution.

Mady Camara contributed reporting.