Senegal’s Controversial Trial

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at an opposition leader’s conviction in Senegal, Russia’s deadly missile strike in Kyiv, and Iran’s spurious charges against two female journalists.

Protests flared in Dakar, Senegal, after a court convicted a leading opposition leader on charges that could prohibit him from running in the country’s election next year. Growing unrest over the trial, now years in the making, has proved to be a key test for a country long seen as a pillar of stability in West Africa.

The politician in question is Ousmane Sonko, a popular opposition leader who finished third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election and has fiercely challenged current President Macky Sall’s more than decadelong rule. In 2021, Sonko was accused of multiple crimes: repeatedly raping a 20-year-old woman and issuing death threats, both charges that he was acquitted of, as well as “corrupting youth,” which relates to the rape charge. On Thursday, Sonko was convicted in absentia of corrupting youth and received a two-year prison sentence. Sonko did not attend the trial on account of security concerns and is therefore not allowed to appeal the decision.

Sonko and his supporters say the charges are political and meant to eliminate opposition ahead of the election. Other opposition leaders have been arrested before past elections on charges they also said were politically motivated and aimed at excluding them from running. Even though Senegal’s constitution has enshrined two-term presidential limits, Sall has refused to confirm that he won’t attempt to run for a third term—adding even more fuel to the fire.

Sonko’s trial has long been seen as a major flash point in Senegalese politics, raising thorny questions about the resilience of its democratic institutions as well as how the case’s fallout could impact women’s rights and the treatment of survivors of sexual assault. In 2021, Sonko’s case sparked some of the country’s worst protests in years, killing at least 12 people. With Thursday’s conviction, more unrest may soon follow: Sonko’s party has urged the army to take part in ongoing protests.

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Missile strike in Kyiv. Russia launched deadly missile strikes against Kyiv on Thursday morning, according to Ukrainian officials. The attack killed at least three people, including a mother and child, while 16 more people were injured in the fallout from Ukraine’s air defenses, officials said. On Thursday, Russian officials said heavy Ukrainian shelling also hit Shebekino, a Russian town by the Ukrainian border; Kyiv said it was not directly involved.

The latest round of attacks comes as Washington approves a $300 million security package for Kyiv. With this pledge, the United States has funneled around $37.6 billion in security aid to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, according to the Defense Department.

Iranian journalists stand trial. Two Iranian journalists whose reporting shed light on the death of Mahsa Amini—and helped galvanize a nationwide movement—are separately standing trial this week. The two female reporters, Elahe Mohammadi and Niloofar Hamedi, face spurious charges, including colluding with hostile governments and conspiring against Iranian national security. They have denied the charges.

Mohammadi and Hamedi were detained last September and could face the death penalty if convicted. Their trials are being conducted behind closed doors. On Tuesday, Hamedi’s husband tweeted that the trial “ended in less than two hours while her lawyers did not get a chance to defend her.”

Latvia’s new leader. Latvia has chosen a new president—and become the first country in the European Union to have an openly gay head of state. (Several EU members have elected openly gay heads of government, such as Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.) Latvian lawmakers have selected longtime Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics to be the country’s next president, a position that is mostly ceremonial. He will take office in July.

Latvia has not legalized same-sex marriage, and LGBTQ+ rights activists hailed Rinkevics’s selection. After the vote’s results were announced, he urged the country’s youth to “be ready to break the glass ceiling.”

Danish police are baffled after multiple loads of potatoes inundated busy roadways in three separate spots, wreaking havoc on traffic and commuters. Although officers detained a truck driver on Thursday, the cause of the spuds’ mass spill remains a mystery. “It looks weird,” police spokesman Kenneth Taanquist told The Associated Press. “We are working on two hypotheses: it is either an accident or it is something that has been done deliberately.”