Aged 25, motorcycle taxi driver A. Dramé appeared this Monday, March 9, before the criminal chamber of the Thiès High Court for the murder of D. Ndiaye, which occurred in 2022 in Tivaouane.

According to the case file, the two men from Jakarta had clashed over a damaged cell phone. D. Ndiaye went to A. Dramé's home to demand repairs for his device, which he believed had been damaged by Dramé. A further fight broke out, during which the defendant fatally stabbed the victim.

In court, the defendant denied the accusations, claiming that the initial altercation took place at the Jakarta bus stop, where he intervened to separate D. Ndiaye from a third party. According to his version of events, he then left the scene, but the victim allegedly came to attack him at his own home.

“He found me at my house and asked me to repair his phone, which had been damaged during our first fight. I told him I wasn’t responsible, and he attacked me. We fought, and he pulled out a knife to stab me. I dodged, and the blow hit Cheikh Kâ, who intervened to separate us. I grabbed his knife, and it was during the fight that he was stabbed in the stomach. I then ran away out of fear,” explained A. Dramé, adding that both men were drunk at the time.

The defendant's mother also testified, stating that she had never met the victim before. She said that D. Ndiaye came to her home concealing a stick to accuse her son, thus provoking the fight. She emphasized that she had never seen her son in possession of a knife.

The public prosecutor, however, considered that the number of blows inflicted by the defendant demonstrated a clear intent to kill, noting that the first blow had even struck a witness who had come to separate the two men. Despite the fact that the victim was armed with a stick, the prosecution judged that the violence of the blows constituted murder. It therefore requested a sentence of five years' imprisonment. The verdict is scheduled for April 13, 2026.