DAKAR, July 30, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - A prominent Senegalese journalist and government critic, detained last year for "spreading false news", has been taken into custody again, his lawyer said on Saturday.

Pape Ale Niang was arrested on Saturday morning, lawyer Moussa Sarr told AFP, a day after leading political opponent Ousmane Sonko was arrested for allegedly stealing a mobile phone and inciting unrest.

Niang, who runs the online news site Dakar Matin, had on Friday spoken about Sonko's arrest in a live streamed video on YouTube.

The gendarmerie is investigating him for allegedly fomenting insurrection, though he has not yet been charged, his lawyer said.

"Niang has been taken into custody," Sarr said.

"He decided to immediately go on hunger strike."

In a separate case, Niang was arrested in November and again in December, accused of "disclosing information likely to harm national defence" and "spreading false news" over a column he wrote about Sonko.

He went on hunger strike at the time.

He was released in January and placed under strict judicial supervision.

- Sonko arrest -

On Saturday, the public prosecutor announced a list of charges to be made against Sonko, including calling for insurrection.

The charges relate to comments Sonko had made, rallies he had held, and other events since 2021, including an incident at his home on Friday that led to his arrest.

Other than fomenting insurrection, the charges include undermining state security, criminal association, acts to jeopardise public security and create serious political unrest, criminal conspiracy in connection with a terrorist act, and theft.

Sonko, a firebrand politician and thorn in the flesh of President Macky Sall, said gendarme police officers outside his home in the capital Dakar had been filming him on Friday and that he had taken one of the phones to demand the images be deleted.

His arrest on Friday and the charges announced on Saturday are unrelated to a moral corruption case that sparked deadly protests last month, the prosecutor said.

In that affair, he was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison for morally corrupting a young woman, a verdict that makes him ineligible to contest next year's presidential election.

He was blocked in his home by security forces at the time of the sentencing but was not jailed following his conviction.