"Barthélémy Dias is seriously ill"

What is he suffering from?
He was infected by one of his fellow inmates. Because they are in rooms with at least 15 people. With the heat, the dirt, the promiscuity, he was contaminated by a fellow prisoner. And the doctor-colonel came to examine him, he was not able to treat him, it is question that Barthélémy is seen by a specialist, a pulmonologist. He is at risk of having bronchitis or tuberculosis. That's the situation

Did you seize the prison administration?
That's not my role. All I can say is that he was forced to pay for the services of an outside specialist. He saw a pulmonologist and he paid from his pocket. The health service of the penitentiary administration was obliged to allow him to see a doctor in town. But he paid out of his pocket.

So he got out of prison to see a doctor?
But he was accompanied. He was at a level where he needed to see a specialist. And the penitentiary administration accompanied him to see a specialist. But he paid from his own pocket. It's a joke he took there. He has, however, been in good health in prison. He was solid when he entered. But he took a sickness there.

How do you think rejection of Khalifa Sall's release request?
I am a little disappointed by this court decision. Judicial contortions have been made to achieve this result. It's annoying and distressing. Because a decision like that of ECOWAS, when it intervened, was not in order to achieve provisional release. No. It is to liberate the individual. As soon as you are told: 'you, Senegal, you took someone, you did not allow him to have a fair trial …'. When ECOWAS tells you that you did not respect your Constitution by imprisoning a Member of Parliament, when ECOWAS tells you that you have not respected community commitments such as the assistance of a lawyer from the outset, when tell you that you did not respect your own laws, but it should not be said that the ECOWAS Court did not say that it should not be released. What are we told here? We are told: 'We must pay him $ 35 million for the harm he has been caused'. This is not serious. This is not Law.

But ECOWAS did not go so far as to demand the release of Khalifa Sall …
All branches of law have progressed through Jurisprudence. French law prohibits collecting illegal immigrants and assisting them. The Constitutional Council, a month ago, said that when someone does it without benefiting for himself, it can not be considered an offense. All branches of law have progressed because the judge has judged things according to context. Here, everyone says: 'we do not care, Khalifa must stay in jail'. But imagine that a popular riot is going on in the country, what will happen? I say that it is an irresponsible decision and I disavow it.

How did you accept the written submission of the Attorney General to the Court of Appeal? Some consider that he has rewritten his thinking while others speak of a 180 ° turn. You lean on which side?
He did not re-specify his thought, he came back on it. I would like to remind the prosecutors that the basic rule is that the pen is used. That is to say, the pen is slave. But the word is free. This means that even though the prosecutor came back to write what he was ordered to write, he should have spoken in court to maintain his position. And no one could have done anything against him. And that's it to be independent. I have always maintained that the prosecution is independent. And I maintain it. The parquet floor is independent when it makes the indictment. You ask him to write and he writes. But when he speaks he speaks differently. That is why you have prosecutors who speak after the prosecution has gone on, to say: 'I ask for the release'.

You seem to suggest that the question of the independence of the judiciary is first individual …
We have a problem with our judges. We have a problem with our justice. Because it is her judges themselves who say she is not independent. Imagine a married woman telling her husband that she wants to be faithful, but that these days, she can not do it because it's the men who run after her. You think it's an excuse. If each magistrate decides to be independent, the judiciary will be independent. It is their duty

Some authorities waved the flag of sovereignty to ignore the decision of the ECOWAS Court of Justice. Could this posture have an impact on Senegal's leadership in the subregion?
This is shocking, unacceptable and inadmissible. I was president of the Council of Ministers of ECOWAS. I am convinced that if at that time such a thing had happened, I guarantee you that I would have resigned. Because it's shameful on the part of Senegal. What I did not tell you was that it was after the 1990s that ECOWAS was reformed from the point of view of the institutions. And that is where, among other institutions, the Court of Justice was created. The court is an institution like parliament. But, the Court says something and they talk to us about sovereignty. They are falling into judicial contortions. It is not worthy of Senegal. At that time, Senegal pushed for the creation of this kind of institution. Because there were countries that did not respect anything at all. So Senegal was a bridgehead of those things. And among the eminent personalities, there were people like Ibrahima Fall.