The Senegalese national assembly over the weekend voted 125 to 23 in favor of adopting the conclusions of an ad hoc committee to decide on the request for the waiving of the parliamentary immunity of MP Khalifa Sall, the detained Mayor of Dakar.
During the National Assembly’s consideration of the request for the waiving of his parliamentary immunity the, deputy mayor of Dakar and opposition MPs expressed their disagreement.
They disrupted the meeting and filed a motion for a preliminary ruling dismissed by their colleagues in the ruling party.
Khalifa Sall has been held since last March in Rebeuss detention center for alleged fraud involving CFAF 1.8 billion in the management of the “advance fund” of the capital city.
He was elected member of Parliament in the legislative elections of last July on the ticket of the “Mankoo Wattu Senegaal”, of which he was the head of the national list. He is widely considered to be the toughest rival of President Sall in presidential elections of 2019
Minister of Justice, Ismaïla Madior Fall, said the lifting of Khalifa Sall’s immunity “does not in any way undermine his presumption of innocence” and is not “a statement of his guilt” but paves the way for a “fair trial.”
