Top Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has been arrested, one of his lawyers told Al Jazeera.
Members of his party, as well as a senior security official, confirmed the arrest with the AFP news agency. The precise reasons for the arrest late on Friday are yet not known.
The firebrand politician and presidential candidate has faced a number of legal woes in recent years in the West African country – part of a plot to keep him out of politics, he has alleged.
Sonko had long called for President Macky Sall to bow out of the 2024 election publicly, accusing Sall’s government of bringing court cases against the opposition politician in an effort to sideline the competition ahead of February’s election.
Sall said in early July he would not seek a third term in the presidential elections.
One of Sonko’s lawyers told Al Jazeera he was arrested for ‘stealing a mobile phone’ and ‘inciting violence’.
According to the lawyer, Sonko, who has been under house arrest, but in recent times has been allowed to leave his home, was coming back from Friday prayers.
The lawyer says that he was being intimidated by local police, who were trying to film him,” said Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from the capital Dakar.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, Sonko had said on social media that security forces stationed outside his home had been filming him.
“I ask the people to stand ready to face this endless abuse,” he wrote in the post.
He said he had taken one of the phones and demanded the images be deleted – a request which was denied.
