A Senegalese court ruled on Monday that a two-month suspended sentence for opposition leader Ousmane Sonko be increased to six months, following an appeal to a previous ruling.

The sentence could see Sonko barred from running in the 2024 presidential election. The 48-year-old had come third in the 2019 presidential vote.

The opposition figure was found guilty of defaming the country's tourism minister, Mame Mbaye Niang, and handed a two-month suspended sentence and hefty fine in March.

Monday's ruling added another four months to the sentence and ordered Sonko to pay 200 million CFA francs (around $330,000, €300,000) in damages to Niang.

He has six days in which to appeal the decision.

Opposition leader rejects accusations

Sonko has denied the defamation charges and claimed that police had attempted to assassinate him while transporting him to court in Dakar for the first defamation trial.

"We have never seen in the whole world a citizen summoned to court, who turns himself in, be the subject of so much fierceness, so much brutality and an attempt almost at physical liquidation," he wrote on social media on Sunday.

He has refused to appear in court for the proceedings, saying "It is no longer justice, it is judicial banditry."

Sonko is also facing trial for alleged "rape and death threats" later this month. An employee at a beauty salon filed a complaint against him.

The opposition leader said the accusation was orchestrated by President Macky Sall to stop him from running in 2024.

Stability in question

Senegal has been considered a bastion of stability in Western Africa where several countries have seen their democratically elected leaders overthrown by the military in recent years.

But the legal cases against Sonko have riled his supporters — many of whom are young and facing poor economic prospects — who have repeatedly taken to the streets in protest.

Riots broke out in 2021 when the rape charges were announced, leaving 12 people dead.

Anger has also been directed at President Sall for his refusal to rule out standing for a third term, something his opponents say would be unconstitutional.

ab/jsi (AFP, Reuters)