Le feuilleton judiciaire autour de Madiambal Diagne takes a decisive turn, and it is the first of its kind. Le journaliste et patron du groupe Avenir Communication was arrested this Tuesday in Paris, then presented to the parquet général de Versailles where he was notified of the international arrest warrant issued by the Senegalese justice. According to Libération, he was finally placed under judicial control, a measure taken against the advice of the prosecutor who had requested the extradition escrow. The ball is now in the court of the Chambre d’instruction de Versailles, which will decide on 28 October on a possible extradition to Senegal. In an interview with L’Observateur, retired magistrate Ousmane Kane estimates that Madiambal Diagne orchestrated his own arrest, stating that “he surrendered to the police after having made his dossier de défense “… For Ousmane Kane, this strategy would aim to transform a judicial procedure into a political cause. “A person wanted, especially for offences susceptible of being politicized, may have every interest in surrendering and denouncing the judicial system that prosecutes him”, he explained. During his brief hearing, reports Libération, Madiambal Diagne denounced a political arrest warrant, saying he was the victim of “persecutions” in Senegal. According to the same source, he could count on the support of the French company Ellipse Projects, involved in the contract which is worth today its legal troubles. If his lawyers convince the French judge of the political character of the prosecutions, the arrest warrant could fall throughout the European space. But if the Chamber of Inquiry orders extradition, the judicial battle will continue before the French superior courts and the European Court of Human Rights. “The French political power retains, whatever it may be, the last word”, recalls Ousmane Kane, evoking the discretionary character of every extradition measure.
Madiambal Diagne will be extradited on the 28th of October?
