Senegal opposition leader jailed over death threat

DAKAR - A Senegalese court has jailed an opposition politician for three months for threatening to kill the president, his lawyer said, in a case that has raised political tension ahead of February elections.

Jean-Paul Dias, the leader of the "Centrist Lions' Bloc", received a 12-month jail sentence with nine months suspended after he threatened publicly on radio to kill President Abdoulaye Wade and a magistrate if his son was locked up.

Dias' son, Barthelemy, also a politician, faces separate charges after he publicly questioned whether Wade, 79, would be fit to run Senegal if he won elections next year, when he is widely expected to seek a second seven-year mandate.

"This is a very severe sentence. We will appeal," said Dias' lawyer, Aissata Sall. He said Dias had recognised his mistake in court and was ready to apologise to Wade and magistrate Lamine Coulibaly for his words, which had been said in anger.

Barthelemy Dias was due to appear in court on Thursday on charges of insulting a magistrate in connection with his comments about Wade.

Both cases have raised concerns over the role of the courts in politics.

"Now it seems that Wade's government is reviving the old habit of using the police to patrol the limits of criticism," analyst Olly Owen at research group Global Insight said in a note.

"The return to a heavy-handed approach will not help to endear Wade either to the political elite or to a growing number of voters for whom his harsh approach to dissent obscures gains created by his government's policies," he added.

Wade, of the Democratic Party, was elected in 2000, ending 40 years of Socialist Party rule since the West African country's independence from France in 1960.

- REUTERS