Madiambal Diagne was interviewed at Urban Security, following complaints from Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, Diop Taif and businessman Abdoulaye Sylla. The boss of Avenir Communication, who is betting that the minutes of his hearing will not leak, said he was surprised by certain questions that were asked to him. In a text, Madiambal Diagne spoke about his hearing on the three cases concerning him. Here is his entire publication. “I bet the minutes of my auditions won’t be leaked!” “. I was interviewed, on Friday December 13, 2024 and Monday December 16, 2024, by investigators from the Dakar Urban Security Brigade. On this occasion, many people in Senegal and abroad, indignant, showed me their solidarity. I would like to express my deep gratitude to them. I cannot, in any way, participate in the violation of the “secrecy of a criminal investigation”. However, it is appropriate to clarify, for the attention of public opinion, a certain number of facts. 1. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko filed a complaint against me during the electoral campaign of the last legislative elections in which I was an unsuccessful candidate. He considered that comments I had made on a television program were defamatory towards him. The procedure had not been investigated and for good reason. But after I declared, at the end of these elections, to take a step back, to take a break from my public interventions, some interpreted this new posture as a retreat, an evasion. Thus, Ousmane Sonko filed a new complaint for defamation, public insults, dissemination of false news and, get this, “maneuvers tending to provoke serious political unrest”. Police investigators joined the two procedures. It clearly appears that Mr. Sonko wanted to set himself up as Public Prosecutor. Also, the facts noted in his complaint for “defamation, public insults and dissemination of false news” date back to the years 2022 and 2023 and are therefore covered by the criminal statute of limitations. The comments noted for the year 2024 were made during the legislative election campaign and thus covered by the immunity given to candidates by the provisions of article L 117 of the Senegalese Electoral Code. In any case, I took full responsibility for the comments I had to make and I provided the investigators with all the necessary factual details. I bet that the unfortunate habit of seeing minutes of criminal investigations opened against journalists and political opponents “leaked” in certain media close to the Pastef regime will not be relevant in the present case. It should be emphasized that I was surprised that essential questions, which have marked public life and which have caused all the hullabaloo that Senegal has experienced in recent months and years, were absent from my hearings because ‘being curiously not targeted by Ousmane Sonko’s complaint. Furthermore, I reiterate my commitment to testify, in the event that official investigations are opened, on the “Cap Manuel Protocol” and on the Adji Raby Sarr Affair. I would like to thank my friend and advisor Me Elhadji Amadou Sall, who assisted me throughout my presence in the police premises. The hearing lasted around three hours but I, despite my will, spent more than 12 hours with the police, without being notified of police custody. This means that my ordeal can constitute a form of psychological and even physical torture. 2. On Monday, December 16, 2024, I was heard, on a complaint from Mamadou Lamine Diop known as “Diop Taïf”, member of Prime Minister Sonko’s Cabinet. The complainant is offended that I provided support, in a post on my X account, to Abdou Nguer, a victim of injuries and who filed a complaint against him. Abdou Nguer had posted a video showing his injuries and indicating that he had filed a complaint against “Diop Taïf” who attacked him with a knife, after leaving a show. I responded to the complaint of “Diop Taïf” with a complaint for “slanderous denunciation”, on the basis of article 362 of the Senegalese Penal Code. This complaint was filed at the end of my hearing. 3. The same day, Monday December 16, 2024, I was heard on a complaint from Abdoulaye Sylla, boss of the Ecotra company and now a politician. Abdoulaye Sylla associated me with the complaint he made against the Journal Le Quotidien, for a publication of August 4, 2024. It is public knowledge that I am neither the Publication Director of this newspaper, much less the author of the article. The fact of associating myself with the complaint constitutes a real aberration. It should also be noted that, through its lawyer Me Demba Ciré Bathily, the Ecotra company had already used its “right of reply”, in the edition of the newspaper Le Quotidien the following day, on August 5, 2024. This means that this complaint seems to have other motivations. I must sincerely say that this saddens me very much. Abdoulaye Sylla could have passed for being a friend. In the name of our common religious guide, the late Serigne Saliou Mbacké, he sometimes sent me a sheep on the occasion of Tabaski or a Bull for the Magal of Touba. Certainly, the political situation, which requires certain weak minds to seek at all costs to please Ousmane Sonko, can dictate certain unworthy postures. I will not allow myself to file a complaint against Abdoulaye Sylla. I would be ashamed of it. SO THAT NO ONE IGNORS! MADIAMBAL DIAGNE
