Ousmane Sonko
A judge in Senegal has released opposition leader Ousmane Sonko on bail after days of deadly protests sparked by his arrest last week.
“He is going home. He is free,” said Etienne Ddione, Mr Sonko’s lawyer.
Mr Sonko says charges of rape are politically motivated to stop him from running again in elections in 2024.
Demonstrators scuffled with security forces outside the courthouse in the capital, Dakar, before Monday’s hearing.
Police have deployed armoured cars in the city in the wake of several days of clashes in which at least eight people were killed, including a teenager in the southern town of Diaobé – the most serious violence Senegal has seen for several years.
Mr Sonko is popular among young Senegalese, and an opposition collective known as the Movement for the Defence of Democracy has called for three days of mass protests, starting on Monday.
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