Divorced and a mother of two, 24-year-old D. Ba accuses the charlatan I. Sall of raping her under the guise of mystical practices intended to save her relationship with a married man. The events date back to 2022 in Rufisque, reports L'Observateur, which covered the hearing before the Dakar Criminal Court.

Suffering first from persistent headaches and then from emotional blockages, the young woman had repeatedly visited the marabout to request prayers and ritual baths. Faced with his client's wish to see her partner marry her, the charlatan allegedly performed a ritual. The daily newspaper of the Groupe Futurs Médias (GFM) reports the sequence of events as follows: "The charlatan scribbles a few arabesques on the kola nuts she requested and ties something like a cord to a section of the shroud. He massages her back, then asks the woman to lie down. He inserts the cord into her vagina so that it is soaked with her vaginal fluid. Taking advantage of this moment when she has lost all lucidity, [the accused] rapes her."

Quoted by the same source, the victim stated that she "watched him penetrate her, powerless to do anything, as if she were under the influence of something," before discovering "traces of semen on her thighs" after regaining consciousness. Informed of the situation, the young woman's father reportedly advised her to set a trap for the suspect. Pretending to want another intimate encounter, the complainant lured the marabout into her room before her father and brother, a gendarme by profession, burst in to catch the accused "shirtless except for his underwear." Arrested on September 21, 2022, the suspect was then taken to the police station.

Charged with rape and quackery, the accused now faces ten years in prison, in accordance with the prosecution's request. After admitting to certain acts during the preliminary investigation, I. Sall ultimately reversed his position before the judges. His lawyers argued for acquittal on the rape charge, maintaining that "there was neither violence nor coercion" and that "consent negates rape. It is quackery that is the constant element in this case, not rape." The verdict of the Criminal Court is expected on June 9, concludes the Gfm headline.