Trial begins in Senegal of a religious accused of double murder

A Senegalese court on Tuesday began the long-awaited trial of a religious leader and 21 followers accused of murdering two renegade supporters seven years earlier.

In a repercussions case, one of the defendants is Sheikh Bethio Thioune, who heads an important group in the Murder Fraternity – an order of Sufi Islam that exerts great political influence in Senegal.

The trial, which took place over six sessions in Mbour, about 80 kilometers southeast of Dakar, began in a heightened security climate.

The case concerns the horrific badbadination, on April 22, 2012, of two young men, whose bodies were found dead 800 meters from Thioune's home, at Keur Samba Laobe, in the west of Senegal.

His supporters are accused of killing the couple in his residence and throwing their bodies into a shallow grave.

Thioune was arrested the next day and accused of complicity in murder. He was released on bail in February 2013.

The badbadination highlighted the role of charismatic leaders in Senegal, where 90% of the population is Muslim and many of whom are members of the Mouride Fraternity.

His disciples, known as "Thiantacounes", burst onto the streets of Dakar in October 2012.

The human rights groups, as well as the relatives of the defendants who spent years in pretrial detention, attacked the long delay required for the case to be tried.

Twenty-two people are on trial and face charges ranging from murder with barbarity to criminal conspiracy, unauthorized burial and non-reporting of a crime.

According to an autopsy, the victims bore signs of violence caused by "sharp, blunt weapons and firearms".

El Hadji Mamadou Ndiaye, one of the defense lawyers, said the sheikh had ruled out one of the two murdered men from his home.

According to this story, the man would have been accused of worshiping Thioune and even comparing him to God – an act of sacrilege.

He refused to obey the ban to enter the residence, which prompted indignant supporters of Thioune to kill him as well as one of his friends, said the l & # 39; 39; lawyer.

Thioune, a civil office worker by profession, has 29 children. He is accused of "non-denunciation of a crime, of absence at the time of the act", punishable by imprisonment of two months to three years and of A fine of up to one million CFA francs ($ 1,700, $ 1,530). euros).

He "vigorously disputes" this accusation, told AFP one of his lawyers, Moussa Sarr, before the trial.

Defense lawyers have called for the suspension of Thioune's lawsuit, saying he had left the country in January to be treated "intensively" in Bordeaux, France.

The civil plaintiffs stated that the claims for reimbursement of medical expenses were false.

Judge Thierno Niang said the court had not received a medical record from the defense and ruled that Thioune, about 80 years old, would be tried "in absentia".