Violation of rights: the Ecowas Court orders Senegal to pay a CFA6M ex minister compensation

The Ecowas court ordered Senegal to pay six million CFA francs to the former Senegalese Minister of Sport, Lat Diop, for having violated his right to freedom of movement.

By relaxing a judgment, the President of the Court, the judge Ricardo Gonçalves, also ordered the Senegalese government to immediately raise all the restrictions imposed on Diop’s movements.

The Court said that Senegal has limited arbitrarily and illegally diop of traveling abroad, violating both the Ecowas protocols and the international obligations for human rights.

He declared that Senegal violated Diop’s right to freedom of movement, in violation of article 12, paragraph 2 of the African card.

The Court of the Community in the case marked: ECW/CCJ/App/22/24, said that the travel restriction placed on the former minister from the Senegal government was “arbitrary and without legal foundation”.

Diop had presented in his presentation before the court that had been prevented from boarding an international flight on August 28, 2024, despite having completed all the formalities of check-in and receiving a boarding passage.

He had said that the Senegalese police officers, acting for political orders, blocked his departure following a previous public comments from the Prime Minister, who mentioned to curb his movement.

Diop had also supported his requests with the test of his Ecowas identity card, the stamped passport, the passage to boarding and media relationships.

He had also argued that the travel ban on him had violated his rights under the African Charter on human rights and people and the international pact on civil and political rights.

However, the Senegalese government had in his defense, denied it to impose any prohibition of official travel of Diop and described his statements as “speculative”.

The government had said that the former minister was under investigation for financial crimes, including undue appropriation and money laundering, starting from September 2024, and still held a diplomatic passport.

The group of three members also included judge GBeri-Bé Ouattara and the judge Edward Asante.