An attack in the middle of a session of the National Assembly. Two Senegalese opposition MPs were sentenced to six months in prison on Monday for “intentional assault” after beating an elected member of the presidential party.
On December 1, MP Massata Samb attacked his colleague Amy Ndiaye from the platform for comments she had made against Moustapha Sy, the leader of a formation member of the main opposition coalition, the Unity and Assembly Party (PUR), who is not a MP, but an influential marabout in Senegal.
A slap and a kick in the stomach of a pregnant MP
The looping images are widely perceived as showing Massata Samb punching the MP and his colleague Mamadou Niang kicking him in the stomach in the middle of a public session.
Amy Ndiaye was hospitalized after the incident and is at risk of losing the baby she is carrying, her lawyer said at the trial. She was discharged from the hospital but remains “in an extremely difficult situation,” according to her advice.
The two parliamentarians, who have been in prison since December 15, were tried by the court on December 19 for flagrante delicto in Dakar. He also on Monday fined them 100,000 CFA francs (€150) each and “collectively” 5 million FCFA (€7,625) in damages for “deliberate beatings and injuries” to Amy Ndiaye.
The defense of the two MPs had argued that the trial could not go ahead given their clients’ parliamentary immunity, but the court ignored this.
The incident was seen as symptomatic of tensions between the opposition and the majority, of violence against women, but also of the sanctity of marabouts.