Dakar: Senegalese President Macky Sall has pardoned Karim Wade, the divisive son of his predecessor and a former minister who was convicted of graft offences in March 2015, the justice ministry said Friday.
In detention since his 2013 arrest, Wade was serving a six-year sentence after a court found he illicitly amassed a fortune worth at least 178 million euros ($198 million).
Wade, who held several government portfolios during his father's 2000-2012 rule, was "freed on Friday morning. He then left Dakar to go to Qatar," said Soro Diop, press officer for the ministry.
Sall had raised the possibility of a pardon in an interview with French broadcaster RFI on June 2, saying "A lot of people are asking that he be released," and adding that "they should not lose hope."
The president had also hinted at a release before the end of Ramadan -- due to finish around July 6 -- at a meeting of religious chiefs on June 14, according to Senegalese media.
The younger Wade was an extremely divisive figure in Senegalese politics in the run-up to the country's last election when his father's bid to seek a third term sparked deadly riots.
Many believed ex-president Abdoulaye Wade was trying to line him up for succession.
Wade was charged in 2013 after his father's stunning election defeat to Sall, prompting the former ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and his father to accuse the government of conducting a witch hunt.
After a successful career in finance in London, Wade returned to Senegal two years after his father's 2000 presidential victory and was soon tapped for a series of increasingly important public positions.
Those included simultaneous appointments to key ministerial portfolios, earning him the nickname "minister of heaven and Earth".
He was also chosen to head the National Agency for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (ANOCI), which successfully oversaw the transformation of Dakar in time to host the 11th Islamic Summit of 57 Muslim countries in 2008 -- but was also criticised for a lack of financial transparency.
Backed by his father, Wade was also selected to oversee the construction of a new international airport in Dakar, the restructuring of Senegal's chemical industry and the creation of a special economic zone.
Disparaged for his many years living in Europe, he is seen by many voters as more "toubab" -- the west African word for white Europeans -- than Senegalese.
AFP
