The Criminal Chamber of the Thiès High Court examined, on Monday, January 26, 2026, the case of Mr. Demba, accused of the murder of his half-brother, J. Demba. The events, which date back to April 2022 in the Sapco district of Thiès, involve a death by hanging, the circumstances of which, particularly the position of the body, immediately raised suspicions of staging.

In court, the accused categorically denied the murder charges for which he had been remanded in custody. "I didn't kill my little brother. Despite the fact that we didn't have the same mother, we got along very well and had no disagreements," he maintained. Mr. Demba claimed to have been fast asleep at the time of the incident, asserting that he heard nothing while he was alone in the house with the victim.

The father's testimony, however, cast a pall over the courtroom. He asserted that the victim was in perfect health. "As soon as the scene was described to me, my suspicions fell on Mr. Demba. When I questioned him, he refused to look me in the eye," he stated, adding that traditional rites performed in Casamance had, in his view, identified the accused as the culprit.

The victim's mother gave a harrowing account. Having been away for about thirty minutes, she returned to find her son hanging from a backyard window, his feet touching the ground. "When I saw the scene, I knew he hadn't taken his own life. The hanging had been faked," she stated emphatically. She also spoke of the accused's blatant hostility toward her son, even accusing him of sexual acts against the child.

Despite the emotional weight of the testimonies, the public prosecutor emphasized the weakness of the physical evidence. While the autopsy confirmed death by mechanical asphyxiation due to hanging, the magistrate noted that no objective element directly linked the accused to the act of killing. Relying on the death certificate as the central piece of evidence, he requested the defendant's acquittal based on reasonable doubt.

Mr. Demba's fate will be sealed on February 23, 2026, the date set for the deliberation.