By BABACAR DIONE
DAKAR, Senegal: Authorities freed Karim Wade, the son of Senegal's longtime former president, early Friday after he served half of his six-year sentence on charges he illegally accumulated a fortune of at least $200 million.
In a presidential decree, current leader Macky Sall said that the financial sanctions and penalties against Wade remain in place. He had been ordered to pay nearly $230 million after his conviction.
Wade held several high-level Cabinet positions in his father's government before Abdoulaye Wade lost the 2012 election to Sall.
Critics feared his father had been trying to line him up as a possible political successor, while Wade's supporters said his conviction was a personal vendetta against the family.
Senegalese media reported that about a dozen Wade supporters greeted him upon his release. Authorities had sought to avoid a repeat of the unrest that was unleashed the day of his conviction, when young supporters set tires ablaze in the streets.
Sall overwhelmingly beat Abdoulaye Wade with more than 60 percent of the vote in 2012, but several years later Sall's popularity has faltered amid complaints he hasn't done enough to improve the lot of ordinary Senegalese. The next presidential election is set for 2019, and many of Karim Wade's supporters hope he will be a candidate.
AP
