Twelve people who have been imprisoned for four years over a 2018 massacre in a troubled Senegalese region have been released, their lawyer disclosed on Monday.
An examining Magistrate has declared the 12, held in a jail in Ziguinchor, the main town in Casamance region,as “innocent and freed” by an examining magistrate, while 13 others will be put on trial, said attorney Cire Cledor Ly.
It would be recalled that fourteen men were rounded up and executed in January 2018 as they went to cut down wood in a protected forest near Ziguinchor.
The 13 who will be put on trial include Omar Ampoi Bodian, a member of the MFDC’s political wing, and journalist Rene Capain Bassene, said Ly.
They face an array of charges, including murder, attempted murder, criminal association and illegal possession of weapons, he said, lashing the accusations as a “parody of justice”.
The trial date is yet to fixed.
