Dakar – A court charged a Senegalese former justice minister with taking bribes, a lawyer said Tuesday, in the latest of several cases against members of ex-president Macky Sall’s government.
Ismaila Madior Fall is the second of Sall’s former ministers to be charged by the High Court of Justice and the fifth to be indicted over corruption allegations. He denies the charges.
Associates have accused him of receiving a bribe worth $86,000 with the promise of future payment in return for granting a public contract to a real estate developer.
The court charged him with “attempted corruption” and placed him under house arrest with an electronic bracelet, one of his lawyers, Amadou Sall, told AFP.
Former women’s minister Salimata Diop was charged on Monday with “complicity in embezzlement”. She posted bail of $98,000.
Diop and three other ministers are accused of misusing funds designated for battling the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
In a report published in December 2022, the Court of Auditors highlighted irregularities in the fund’s management.
These included overpricing in the purchase of rice intended for disadvantaged households and the acquisition of sanitiser gel.
Several other suspects including high-ranking officials have been charged in the case.
Sall’s successor, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has made fighting corruption a priority since taking office last year.
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Source: AFP
