Son of former Senegalese president Wade rejects pardon

DAKAR, Wednesday

Karim Wade, the son of former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, has said he would again refuse a presidential pardon that would scrap his two remaining years in jail.

Karim’s rejection comes in the wake of an ongoing reconciliation between his father and his successor Macky Sall.

Shortly before the Supreme Court’s final verdict on his six-year sentence, Karim vowed to reject a presidential pardon, but would accept a similar gesture from the Supreme Court, which eventually upheld his sentence.

For two weeks, it has become an open secret that Karim would regain freedom anytime as the relationship between President Sall and his predecessor improved.

The rapport between the two had plummeted since 2010 when President Wade fired Sall from the helm of the national assembly which he headed after serving as premier for two years.

But speaking through one of his confidants who paid him a visit in jail on Tuesday, Karim said he would remain in jail until his six-year term expired in 2018.

“My trial was politically motivated and I’ve been unfairly held in jail by the justice system,” Karim said.

Early this year, a United Nations working group declared that Karim was arbitrarily held in jail because he could have been out of jail as his trial continued and jailed if found guilty.

But the Senegalese government retorted that Karim was held in protective custody to prevent him from rendering the search for his “stolen and hidden wealth” difficult for the prosecutors.

The court that jailed the former president’s son has declared that millions of dollars in cash and assets owned by Karim had already been located in banks and other safe havens abroad and confiscated.

Karim and about a dozen other former senior government officials were being held in jail for allegedly swindling millions of dollars of public funds.

The former president’s son held up to four ministerial portfolios simultaneously at the time of the defeat of his father in a democratic poll in 2012 thereby ending his 12 year-rule.

Karim has been in custody since April 2013, accused of illegally acquiring 178 million euros (Sh 20 billion) through complex financial arrangements when he served as counsellor and minister under his father.