Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall, the Fear of Being Candidates

At the end of the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 29 September 2022, President Macky Sall had asked his ministerof Justice, Ismaïla Madior Fall, to examine the conditions that would allow certain political figures to be readmitted to the electorate list, after their removal due to judicial convictions. Everyone saw in such an initiative, a concern for the political rehabilitation of Karim Meïssa Wade and Khalifa Ababacar Sall. The government statement indicated that « the head of state asked the minister of Justice to make proposals to him as soon as possible ». Over a month later, the project seems to be stuck because the modalities of its implementation divide the different parties. Indeed, the government seems to favour the path of adopting an amnesty law while the camps of Karim Meïssa Wade and Khalifa Ababacar Sall refuse such a formula. In the end, we realise that if Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall decline the proposal, it is because in reality they do not want to run for office.

The Rather Selfish Whim of Karim Wade 

Fringes of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS), who speak on behalf of Karim Wade, claim that President Wade’s son, convicted on 23 March 2015 by the Court for the Repression of Illicit Enrichment (Crei), rejects the offer of an amnesty and continues to demand a review of the trial, on the grounds that he was not properly judged by a court that is « illegal ».This claim does not lack meaning, in the political sense. In the event of a reopening of Karim Wade’s trial, everything would somehow be reset and the virtual candidate of the Pds, will be able to go before the voters by telling them that he remains presumed innocent, while an amnesty law would always leave the feeling of a certain guilt erased by a desire for amnesia or collective forgetfulness.

Karim Wade would find another strictly personal interest in the review of his trial or better, in a final decision of acquittal in his favour. This would enable him to free his sleeves and keep an immaculate image to better occupy himself in his activities in the world of finance, which he develops in particular in Doha, Kigali and Kinshasa. One even wonders if Karim Wade would not prefer such an activity rather than return from his golden exile in Qatar to do politics in Senegal with all its hazards and discomforts. With disconcerting ease, Karim Wade threatens, through his incense bearers, to resign even from the Pds if his party were to associate itself with the idea of passing an amnesty law. That is to say…Karim Wade’s demands appear more personal and selfish than political in approach and lack of altruism. Indeed, he seems to care less about the fate of his co-accused (Bibo Bourgi and others) who, would probably be happy to be amnestied in order to turn a bad page and move on. Also, it seems inconsistent that Karim Wade, who finds the Crei illegal and rejects its judgments, continues to ask for a reopening of his trial before the same court. Admittedly, in these columns, we have constantly noted our reservations, not to say our negative assessment of the rules that organise the Crei, which absolutely does not guarantee a « fair and equitable trial ». This is not only in the sense that the principle of the burden of proof remains imposed on the accused, but also the absence in the operative part of a second instance of jurisdiction to receive possible appeals filed by the parties, all of which appear to be inconsistent with a good distribution of justice. (« For a Reform of the Crei« , 26 October 2015). Opposition MPs have floated the idea of a bill to amend certain provisions of the electoral law to allow participation in the next presidential election in 2024, political figures such as Karim Wade and Khalifa Ababacar Sall. It would not be possible to adopt these planned reforms if they are not accepted by the majority parliamentary group of Benno bokk yaakaar (Bby). In other words, the idea is set to be a second best and Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall, if they are driven by their desire to participate in the presidential election, risk letting go of the prey for the shadows.

In the event that the idea put forward with much media support by President Macky Sall (to hold public opinion as witnesses), to bring these two protagonists back into the political game fails, Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall will be in a bad position to shout in 2024, an anti-democratic attitude of Macky Sall to remove formidable opponents from the political game. « We cannot make people happy in spite of themselves » and « no one can claim his own turpitude »!

Thus, it has been decided again for Khalifa Sall…

We cannot say enough that Khalifa Ababacar Sall always lets himself pulled by the nostrils. In a column dated December 14, 2020, entitled « Alliance with Sonko, Khalifa Sall is losing in all fronts « , we indicated that « Khalifa Sall always lets others decide for him ». This is the case with the idea of rejecting the amnesty law that has just been proposed. Khalifa Sallallowed Barthélemy Dias and other members of Ousmane Sonko‘s Pastef speak and decide for him and therefore, parliamentarians of this camp have started preparations for an Electoral Code reform bill in order to allow his eligibility. It has already been said that nothing would guarantee the success of such an initiative, but this approach undermines the entire argument of Khalifa Sall‘s supporters who wanted to make believe that despite the provisions of the electoral law, the former mayor of Dakar could be a candidate for the 2019 presidential as well as the 2022 local and legislative elections. This would have been no more than an eloquent admission of their bad faith, if they resolved to correct what, from the judges’ point of view, prevented the admissibility of Khalifa Sall‘s candidacy.

Moreover, Khalifa Sall has more interest than any other in an amnesty law. If the request for a review of his trial, brandished by a few people, some of whom have already declared themselves candidates or who have finished choosing their candidate for the next presidential election, were successful, we do not see a judge who would spare him a conviction for « forgery and use of forgery in public documents and prevarication of public funds ». Indeed, Khalifa Sallmade many public confessions and before the Justice, to have used a fraudulent practice that was still current in the Mayor of Dakar offices, and which included making fictitious orders of food intended for the indigent, while instead of tonnes of rice and millet, the accounting agents gave cash to the mayor of Dakar in order to amass a certain « slush fund » to keep a certain « black vault ». In a way, he would say in a trivial way: « I stole from the coffers of the town hall because other mayors before me did it. » Khalifa Sall would be very funny to stand in front of the voters while dragging in his judicial record, such a conviction. To say that there are personalities who advocate and work towards good governance and transparency in the management of public resources, yet they have the audacity to defend or excuse these forfeitures and fantasies of Khalifa Sall! It is a safe bet that Khalifa Sall would like to see the idea of an amnesty law flourish as he, like Karim Wade, was well satisfied with the presidential pardon that President Macky Sall had granted them respectively in 2019 (Khalifa Sall) and 2016 (Karim Wade). Both were picky, claiming not to be seeking a presidential pardon, but were nonetheless impatient to see the proceedings succeed when others had made the request for them. Neither had been forcibly dragged from their prison cell to smell the open air and board the first plane waiting at Yoff airport. In any case, by declining the offer of amnesty, Khalifa Sall also forgets his other companions in misfortune Mbaye Touré and others who would be happy with such a gesture and rebuild their lives and their professional careers.

We can remember that when Khalifa Sall was making a fuss about a request for clemency, those people, condemned at the same time as him, had taken it upon themselves to formulate the request that ended up benefiting him. In this other situation, it was necessary to decide for Khalifa Sall to get him out of prison.

The Unfinished Story of Requests for Retrial in Senegal

To look for a textbook case of trial review in the judicial annals of Senegal would be to look for a needle in a haystack.History indicates that the requests for retrial made, such as that of Mamadou Dia for the review of his trial following the events of December 17, 1962 or that of Abdoulaye Wade in the case of the assassination of the constitutional judge Babacar Sèye in 1993, have never been successful. The former president of Senegal’s Governing Council (equivalent to the current Prime Minister), Mamadou Dia, was accused of an attempted coup against President Léopold Sédar Senghor and was convicted along with many of his companions. They were imprisoned in Kedougou prison and were released in 1974, following a presidential pardon. An amnesty law was passed in 1976 to erase the facts. This amnesty law allowed Mamadou Dia to participate in the 1983 and 1988 elections. Mamadou Dia and his comrades demanded no less a review of their trial. One of his lawyers at the 1963 trial, Abdoulaye Wade, who became President of the Republic of Senegal in 2000, proposed the reopening of the trial. But against all odds, Mamadou Dia declined the offer in 2001. His posture will have greatly disappointed some families of his companions in misfortune, especially given that beyond the act of rehabilitation, the regime of Abdoulaye Wade intended, after a new trial, to engage the responsibility of the State and to allocate substantial compensation to the living persons and the beneficiaries of the disappeared.

Mamadou Dia’s close ones explained that the position of « Father Dia » was not any kind of snobbery or mental failure, as some had thought. In 2003, Mamadou Dia did not think it was just to hold a new trial in which Léopold Sédar Senghor, who had died on 20 December 2001, could not participate. On the other hand, President Abdoulaye Wade had the possibility or latitude to reopen the trial of the Babacar Sèye case. He refrained from doing so and hastened at first to grant a pardon, in February 2002, to the « Clédor Séne gang », found guilty of the murder of Judge Sèye. The pardon did not seem to be enough for the beneficiaries, who were very verbose about the circumstances of the judge’s assassination. Thus, a parliamentarian of President Wade’s party, Ibrahima Isidore Ezzan, suddenly initiated an amnesty law in 2005 to definitively bury this dirty case of Babacar Sèye. We will retain that President Wade granted himself amnesty for a case in which his personal responsibility was much at stake.

To return to Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall, we would tell them that if they are confident in their ability to win the next presidential election, why not contest with the minimum conditions that an amnesty law would offer, even if it means reviewing their trial once in power? Many of those who encourage them to reject the idea of an amnesty law seem to want them nothing but good. Professor Cheikh Anta Diop enjoined us with: « Ku bërey daan!« In other words, you don’t win a fight you didn’t fight.