Khardiata Tandian sentenced to one year in prison for forging former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko's signature

This sentence was handed down by the Dakar correctional court on Thursday, July 23, 2026, and is largely covered by her pre-trial detention. Her alleged accomplice, entrepreneur Chérif Zeyni Habidin Sy, received a six-month suspended sentence for complicity in counterfeiting state seals. The case involved Tandian forging the signature of Ousmane Sonko, then Prime Minister, and the chief of staff to the President of the Republic in 2025.

She did this in a letter to secure the position of legal director at the Fund for Support to Investment by Senegalese Abroad Faise. Her actions were discovered when she submitted the false recommendation letter. The administrator of Faise, Khoureychi Abdoulaye Thiam, contacted the Prime Minister and confirmed the letter was not legitimate.

During the trial, Tandian admitted to forgery and using forged administrative documents but attributed the counterfeiting of state seals to Sy, claiming he produced the stamps. She stated she needed a recommendation letter and contacted Sy's company, Tampon Express, after scanning a purchase order with a Prime Minister's Office stamp. She then asked him to reproduce the stamp for 14,000 CFA francs.

The prosecutor noted her history of similar offenses. Sy, born in 1984, denied the accusation of counterfeiting state seals, stating Tandian called him and