Dakar-Paris : pourquoi la tension monte
Arrested as part of a wave of arrests targeting homosexuals, a 30-year-old French national, an engineer, has been detained in Senegal since February 14. He is being prosecuted for "acts against nature," criminal conspiracy, money laundering, and attempted HIV transmission.
According to a diplomatic source, quoted by L'AS, Paris has since been following the situation "closely," while reaffirming its international commitment to the rights of sexual minorities.
It is in this already tense context, notes the daily newspaper, that the Senegalese Parliament adopted, on March 11, new legislation toughening the repression against "acts against nature", now increasing the penalties incurred from five to ten years in prison.
This tightening of the law has finally provoked a strong diplomatic and media backlash in France in recent days. As reported by the newspaper, the President of the French National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, addressed the nation in a short video released on the eve of the International Day Against LGBT-phobia.
The French politician denounces the "humiliations" and "filmed scenes of violence" targeting the LGBTQ+ community in Senegal. While recognizing the right of every nation to legislate sovereignly, she believes this legislation constitutes a "violation of human rights" and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, recalling France's fight since 1982, under the leadership of Robert Badinter, for universal decriminalization.
Following this statement, a response was organized at the Parisian level with the launch of a campaign for the granting of "humanitarian visas" to LGBTQ+ people from Senegal. Activist Jean-Luc Romero-Michel appealed to President Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to demand emergency asylum measures for those at risk.
For his part, Paris Senator Ian Brossat followed suit by announcing the filing of a motion in the Paris Council to facilitate the reception of "victims of this law", referring to a situation of "life or death emergency"
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