Africa

Two Senegalese National Assembly Members Detained For Assaulting Pregnant Colleague

Senegalese deputies take part in the first parliamentary session since the July 2022 legislative elections, in Dakar on September 12, 2022.Muhammad OsmanIn early December, a video of a clash inside Senegal’s National Assembly circulated in the media. In the video, a male member of the parliament approached a female colleague and slapped her in the face, before another male lawmaker tacked her to the floor while she was attempting to strike back with a chair.The two opposition members of Senegal’s National Assembly, accused of assaulting their female colleague, are now in police custody.Massata Samb and Mamadou Niang, both members of the Unity and Rally Party (PUR), showed up at the National Assembly for the first time on Monday after disappearing since assaulting Amy Ndiaye, a deputy of the Benno Bokk Yakaar (BBY) coalition during a December 1 debate on a draft budget of the Ministry of Justice.The two were taken into custody following a hearing at the Criminal Investigations Division, the country’s judicial police, according to local media. Their trial is set to take place next Monday.

“They asserted their immunity, but the prosecutor felt it necessary to place them today under a warrant of committal. They will be tried on Monday in flagrante delicto,” said Abdy Nar Ndiaye, a member of the two MPs’ defense team.

Despite being imprisoned, Samb and Niang were said to have been able to cast their voices on Thursday by proxy during the National Assembly’s vote on a motion of censure proposed by the opposition against the government of recently appointed Prime Minister Amadou Ba. The parliament did not pass the motion.On December 1, during the Senegalese National Assembly’s debate on the budget of the Ministry of Justice, Massata Samb, a member of the Unity and Rally Party (PUR), slapped Benno Bokk Yakaar MP Amy Ndiaye, who was accused of making disrespectful remarks against a religious figure, PUR leader Serigne Moustapha Sy.Moments later, Ndiaye was kicked in her stomach by another opposition lawmaker as she tried to throw a chair at the first assaulter. The woman was rushed to a hospital, where it was revealed she was pregnant at the time when the two MPs had assaulted her.Two days after a video of the fight circulated on the Internet, triggering outrage among Senegalese people, the President of the National Assembly demanded the arrest of the PUR MPs, with the majority calling for their immunity lifted in order to take responsibility for the assault.

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