The Attorney General, the Public Prosecutor, and the Financial Pool Prosecutor appeared before the press yesterday to provide information on the ongoing proceedings regarding the Court of Auditors’ report on the management of the Covid-19 fund, and other reports managed by the Financial Prosecutor’s Office. During these discussions, the judicial authorities revealed the amounts seized, secured, and the rogatory commissions that will be undertaken.

The files on the Court of Auditors’ report concerning the management of the Covid-19 fund were widely discussed yesterday, during the press conference of Attorney General Mbacké Fall, Public Prosecutor Ibrahima Ndoye and that of the Financial Pool El Hadj Abdoulaye Sylla. Prosecutor Ibrahima Ndoye gave an explanation session on the arrests of recent days concerning the said report. According to him, « this work was done with great efficiency, so that since yesterday (Editor’s note: April 16), arrests have multiplied, referrals to the Public Prosecutor’s Office are noted and judicial investigations opened and entrusted to the various investigating judges. »

Accountability: Justice in the Time of Men

Continuing his remarks, Prosecutor Ndoye informs that « for the 8 reports received by the Dakar Public Prosecutor’s Office and concerning the Ministry of Mines and Geology, the Ministry of Culture and Communication, the Ministry of Youth, the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Women, Family and Child Protection, the Ministry of Industrial Development and SMEs and the Ministry of Community Development, arrests were ordered and carried out. »

Bail Prioritized 

Reviewing the progress of this procedure, he stated that 27 people were taken to the Prosecutor’s Office and presented to the investigating judges. Ibrahima Ndoye thus clarified the preferred bail option. « We are not adopting a predatory approach. The objective of a credible and effective Prosecutor’s Office is to address the criminal phenomenon in its full scope, ensuring that the disruption caused to public order by the commission of criminal or misdemeanour acts is brought to an end. This primary objective is necessarily linked to the social rehabilitation of the perpetrator, but above all, to compensation for the harm, » he said.

Management of Force Covid funds: Justice tracks the Senegalese variants

According to the public prosecutor, « Senegalese regulations regarding the handling of economic and financial crimes provide for and sometimes even prioritize, following the hoarding of private or public funds, the objective of recovery. It is with this in mind that the arrested persons taken to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and entrusted to the various investigating judges of the Dakar High Court spontaneously and voluntarily offered to provide bail, » he declared.

Furthermore, Mr. Ndoye specifies that in matters of « embezzlement and fraud involving public funds, the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that the granting or refusal of the measure of clemency, provisional release, is subject to the prior obligation to fully reimburse the sums which are the subject of the embezzlement or to provide security for them or to raise serious objections, if it is not possible to establish a sufficiently poor state of health which would be incompatible with remaining in a prison environment, even in a hospital, to be able to claim to be fit to benefit from the measure of provisional release. » Noting that the various individuals brought to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and presented to the various investigating judges offered to provide bail, the public prosecutor reported that this is how « proposals for bail, which were actually executed, amounting to 258 million 448 thousand 233 CFA francs, were recorded. » According to him, this amount may change because « charges are pending, and the individuals concerned before the investigating judges benefit from this same possibility. »

Macky Sall indictment: Takku-Wallu stands against Pastef’s project

However, Mr. Ibrahima Ndoye clarified, « the objective is not to turn ourselves into predators. We are not debt collectors, we are judicial authorities. » « When the law provides an escape hatch for prosecuted persons who are still covered by the seal of the presumption of innocence, this challenge, if it is not sufficiently articulated and characterized, must necessarily be accompanied by a bond, » he insisted.  In the same vein, the public prosecutor maintains that this money « is currently deposited at the CDC, and at the end of the procedure, if the courts are required to establish criminal responsibilities and engage in a process of declaring guilt, these are sums which will return to the People. »

Guy Marius Sagna on travel bans: “Any measure restricting a fundamental freedom must be notified…”

On the other hand, he specified, « if this principle of the presumption of innocence enshrined in the texts is later validated by the courts of judgment, naturally, requests for restitution can be addressed to the various judicial authorities. » Still on this question, the public prosecutor insisted on the advantage of « preserving the interests of the State. » (…) « Efficiency can be sought and found in the search for offenders and in the measure of deprivation of liberty, but efficiency can also be sought by trying to fill the State coffers rather than the prisons. We felt we had to opt for this solution, because the main objective is not to send people to prison, but to ensure that the interests of the state are preserved (…),” he added.

By Dieynaba KANE / dkane@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH