Senegalese state lawyers say they plan to appeal a ruling that ordered jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko be reinstated on the electoral roll, clearing the way for him to run for president.
Sonko, 49, who was declared ineligible after being sentenced to prison in June, has until December 26 to collect the necessary sponsorships and submit his candidacy for the February election.
In the latest ruling in a more than two-year wrangle with the state, a judge in the capital Dakar on Thursday ordered that his name be re-entered on the electoral lists.
But lawyers representing the state announced in a statement released late on Thursday that they would fight the ruling at the Supreme Court.
'Decision not final'
"The decision of the Dakar district court not being final or enforceable, Ousmane Sonko remains removed from said lists until the case is finally judged," they said.
But their legal interpretation of the ruling appeared to differ from that of lawyers for Sonko, who said any appeal would not stop Thursday's decision being implemented immediately.
"The electoral code is very clear. When the judge gives his decision, this decision must be immediately carri ed out," one of Sonko's lawyers, Cire Cledor Ly, told reporters.
Sonko, a firebrand politician who came third in the 2019 presidential election, was in a similar situation in October.
Convicted in absentia
A court in Ziguinchor, the southern city where he is mayor, ruled he should be reinstated, only for the top court to disagree a month later, and say the case should go back to the Dakar court.
Sonko was convicted in absentia on June 1 of morally corrupting a young person and sentenced to two years in prison.
In late July, he was arrested on other charges, including fomenting insurrect ion, criminally associating with a terrorist body and endangering state security.
He and his lawyers say the court cases are part of a plot to torpedo his political career. The government denies any manipulation of the justice system.
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