“It’s a sigh of relief”: French woman Colin Fay was released and expelled from Senegal after two months of detention

Colleen Fay is single. The French woman, jailed in Senegal after her participation in a demonstration in mid-November in support of opponent Ousmane Sonko, has been deported to France, one of her lawyers, Me Sheikh Qureisi Ba, told AFP. “Coleen Fay has been expelled, the judge himself told me this,” Me Kureissi Ba said on the night of Thursday to Friday.

The information was confirmed by her other lawyer in France, Me Juan Branco, who said in a message to AFP that she was due to arrive in Paris on Friday morning.

“It’s a sigh of relief,” Me Kureishi Ba responded to the announcement of her release, saying she was “under the responsibility of the police” until her arrival in France, but without the presence of her lawyers. “She’s in a good mood. She is a cheerful girl,” added Me Ba.

Why was the French woman in prison?

Colleen Fay, who was involved with the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion while studying in Spain, came to work in Senegal as a physiotherapist in a pregnancy center.

On November 17, she was arrested after demonstrating in support of Ousmane Sonko, the main opponent of current Senegalese President Macky Sall, in front of the Dakar Supreme Court.

The 26-year-old was accused of, among other things, “conspiracy against the authority of the state” and “acts or maneuvers likely to endanger public safety,” and last week she was again charged with “attempting to leave unlawful correspondence.” ” “This was indirect persecution bordering on the ridiculous,” Me Ba said.

She faced life imprisonment. His mother Véronique Murat was outraged by the “clearly disproportionate” sentence, recalling that “the right to demonstrate is international law.”

While in the Liberte 6 women’s detention center, the young woman began a hunger strike, which was interrupted after ten days. “For her it was the only way to protest, she was helpless,” said Véronique Murat.

“Free Colin”

Since her imprisonment in Grenoble (Isere), where she is from, several meetings of dozens of people have taken place on the initiative of Colleen Fay’s relatives. Her relatives, united in the Free Colina movement, regularly warned about the fate of the young woman.

Former Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was questioned on the matter in mid-December in a letter sent by the young woman’s lawyer Juan Branco and two left-wing MPs, environmentalist Aurélien Taché and Insoumise Sofia Chiquiru.

The French government has called on Senegalese authorities to expedite the investigation of the young girl’s case, Me Ba said.

A country under political tension

According to her lawyers, the young woman’s arrest was part of the “climate of political tension in Senegal” and the “authoritarian excesses exhibited by the Dakar regime under Macky Sall against dissident voices and popular movements, especially associated with the political opposition led by Ousmane Sonko.”

Colin Fay’s lawyers are also among those representing Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, who is currently in prison.

Found guilty in June of debauchery of a minor and sentenced to two years in prison, he was jailed in late July on other charges including incitement to insurrection, criminal association in connection with terrorist activities and public security.

Ousmane Sonko in these cases denounces a plot to prevent him from running in the February 2024 presidential elections, which the government denies.