From this Wednesday, November 20 until Friday, Mayalé Desbois is on trial for the assassination of Benaya Mangal by the Juvenile Assize Court in Cayenne. On June 1, 2022, the body of young Benaya Mangal was found in the Couachy marshes, in Mana, ten days after his disappearance.
The affair shocked Guyana two years ago. The 1is June 2022, the lifeless body of young Benaya Mangal was found lying in the Couachy marshes, in Mana. This Wednesday, November 20, Mayalé Desbois is on trial for the assassination of Benaya Mangal by the Juvenile Assize Court in Cayenne.
At the time, Benaya Mangal, 16 years old, disappeared on the evening of 1is June 2022. For ten days, searches were carried out to try to find him. Benaya Mangal's family organizes hunts. Friends, relatives, firefighters, hunters, many people are mobilizing for the search.
Watch the May 2022 report:
Schooled and leading a trouble-free life, the high school student disappeared on May 22. That day, Benaya Mangal left the family home around 3 p.m. to go work out at a friend's house in Mana. He then arrives at the home of Mayalé Desbois, a high school student at Léopold Elfort, in Mana. At 6 p.m., Benaya Mangal left the scene according to his friend, the last person to have seen him.
On the evening of May 22, Benaya Mangal disappeared. Very quickly, his family has doubts about this childhood friend. Tirelessly, she continues the research. The morning of 1is June, she is accompanied by drone pilots to fly over several areas of the town of Mana. One of the drones ended up spotting a body in the Couachy marshes, in Mana, not far from the home of Mayalé Desbois.
Watch the report from June 1, 2022:
With the support of firefighters' divers, the body was airlifted and then deposited at the Mana rescue center. After checks, the prosecutor confirms that it is Benaya Mangal.
When the gendarmes went to the home of Mayalé Desbois, he immediately admitted to being behind the death of Benaya Mangal. Aged 17 at the time, he was placed in police custody in Saint-Laurent du Maroni. The investigation opened into a worrying disappearance takes another turn, that of a presumed assassination. The young man is placed in pre-trial detention.
According to investigations, Mayalé Desbois would have taken Benaya Mangal fishing on a boat on the lake, very far from the shore, and he would have carried out the act. He then allegedly hit him by surprise, numerous times, with a bladed weapon.
How can we explain such barbarity? What motive? Would Mayalé Desbois have wanted to avenge a young girl with whom he was in love and towards whom Benaya Mangal would have been tactless? This Wednesday, November 20, at the opening of the trial, many questions still remain unanswered.
Benaya's father, Daniel Mangal declared at the time: “I had a feeling that there was something, in the end he did murder my son”. He also deplored the work “gendarmes”, “I told them that we had to clear out the swamp”.
According to its lawyer, Me Boris Chong-Sit, the Mangal family expects a lot from this trial and “above all hopes for a judicial response adapted to the barbarity to which their son was a victim.”
The trial could be held behind closed doors. The verdict should be delivered this Friday, November 22.
