The National Assembly voted in plenary yesterday, Tuesday, the law on the status and protection of whistleblowers. An opportunity for the Minister of Justice, Ousmane Diagne, to warn against malicious denunciations. Le Garde des Sceaux recalled that “Article 362 of the Penal Code already provides for penalties of six months to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of FCFA 50 000 against anyone who makes a slanderous denunciation”. According to Ousmane Diagne, this provision applies fully to the lanceurs d’alerte, who must act “in good faith”. In response to Aïssata Tall Sall, who had cited a decision of the French Conseil d’État defining the alert, the Minister underlined that “if jurisprudence had to intervene in France, it was because the law was not clear”. He insisted that the first article of the Senegalese text already provided a sufficient definition.
Law on the protection of whistleblowers: here are the sanctions for slanderous denunciations
