Dakar: A group of Senegalese football supporters jailed following their country’s chaotic, violence-plagued Africa Cup of Nations final in Morocco in January returned home Sunday after being pardoned by the Moroccan king.
King Mohammed VI granted the fans a pardon “on humanitarian grounds” on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, Morocco’s royal court said Saturday.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye welcomed the jubilant supporters on arrival at the airport outside Dakar just after 1:00 am, an AFP journalist reported.
“We’re very happy to have them back on Senegalese soil,” Faye, who donned a tracksuit for the occasion, told journalists.
He thanked Moroccan authorities for the pardon — but in what Morocco will likely perceive as a new dig, hailed the national team as “two-time African champions,” even though the January final is the subject of an ongoing dispute before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
