The case arises from a video posted online in September in which CHEIKH MBACKE SAKHO alleged that elders of the Mouride sect swindled their followers and took money from Muslims to advance their business interests.
SAKHO was reportedly not present at the hearing in the capital, Dakar, due to Mouride members threat to lynch him.
Prosecutors said that a six-month suspended jail sentence and a fine of about one thousand six hundred and seventy dollars was the minimum sentence for the Imam.
The minimum sentence follows an early apologies the imam had tendered in another online video.
