Senegal: Opposition member of parliament tortured in police custody

Index Number: AFR 49/002/1993
Date Published: 27 June 1993
Categories: Africa, Senegal

Mody Sy, a recently elected member of parliament representing the opposition Parti democratique senegalais (PDS), Democratic Party of Senegal, was arrested on 20 May 1993. He was held for one week at the Gendarmerie station in Thiong St, central Dakar, where he was reportedly tortured in order to make him confess to supplying the weapons used in the murder of a prominent lawyer earlier that month. On 11 June a military doctor examined him, nine days after his lawyer had requested it, and he subsequently received medical treatment. However despite widespread publicity and a well-documented case, there has still been no official investigation into these allegations.