Son of Senegal ex-president to boycott graft trial
Nov 6, 2013, 3:51 PM
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) – Lawyers for the son of Senegal’s former president say they will no longer participate in legal proceedings against their client, who has been incarcerated since April on charges of illicit enrichment.
Karim Wade, a former minister in father Abdoulaye Wade’s government, was arrested following a months-long investigation into how he amassed a fortune estimated at more than $1.3 billion. He is the most high-profile of several officials to be charged with illicit enrichment under Wade, who was voted out of office last year.
His trial has not yet begun and a court last month extended his pre-trial detention by another six months.
Lawyer Seydou Diagne said, however, that Wade had decided to no longer participate in “a parody of justice,” claiming that his client was the victim of political score-settling.
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