Mamadou Guèye, 83-year-old village chief of Keur Maty, died after spending two weeks in preventive detention at the Thiès Detention and Correction Center (Mac). The old chief was arrested on November 20, 2024 following a land dispute with his half-brother, Massamba Guèye, who accused him of occupying his land. After his arrest, Mamadou Guèye was charged and placed under arrest warrant, before being judged by the Criminal Chamber of the Thiès High Court.
At the end of the hearing, the court set the deliberations for December 13. However, defense lawyers, alarmed by their client’s fragile state of health, requested provisional release due to his advanced age. This request was rejected by the court. A few days later, Mamadou Guèye suffered a seizure in his cell and was rushed to the Thiès regional hospital. Unfortunately, he died there.
The victim’s lawyer, Me Maguette Sène, expressed her indignation at this tragic outcome. According to him, the treatment reserved for Mamadou Guèye was excessive, taking into account his age and his state of health. Me Sène also underlined that, despite the lawyers’ alerts concerning the health of the accused, the request for provisional release had been rejected, while, according to him, the offense of illegal occupation of land for which Mamadou Guèye was being tried did not justify a warrant of committal.
“There are many defendants in similar cases who appear free in court for this type of offense,” he said. He clarified that, after the debates, the matter had been postponed for deliberation until December 13. “We therefore, with my colleague Me Cheikh Tidiane Mbodji, made a request for provisional release, emphasizing the advanced age of our client and his state of health incompatible with detention. But the prosecution opposed it and the court rejected our request,” lamented Me Sène in the columns of L’Observateur.
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Senegal
