(twelve) months suspended prison term; the accused apologized and asked
for clemency from the Court; the court then reserved the case for judgement
to be handed down on March 20, 2019; on that date, the court ruled as
follows;
II- PROCEDURE
A- Prosecution
1- Guilt
Whereas Article 353 of the Penal Code punishes anyone who, through
clumsiness, carelessness, inattention, negligence or failure to observe
regulations, unintentionally commits homicide or unintentionally causes
homicide; whereas this offence, to be classified as such, presupposes the
combination of three elements, namely the death of a person, a fault and a
causal link between the fault and the death of the victim;
Whereas in this case, N. N aka H is accused of having involuntarily caused
the death of B. A Nouro; whereas it is in fact common knowledge
that the victim died during a dispute between the accused and his
concubine GANAME Ammi; that during this dispute, the accused
slapped and punched GANAME Ammi; that he thus undermined the
latter's physical integrity, which constitutes a criminally reprehensible
offence; that it is established that GANAME Ammi, while agitated
by the blows received, kicked her child B. A. N, who was on the
scene, against the wall, thus causing his death; that, in other words, had it
not been as a result of the blows received by GANAME Ammi, she would
not have acted in such a way as to cause the child's death; that accordingly
the causal link between the accused's fault and the death of the child is
sufficiently established; that he should therefore be kept within the scope of
the crime of manslaughter and found guilty of it;
2- Sentence
Whereas Article 353 of the Penal Code punishes manslaughter with 3
(three) months to 2 (two) years prison term and a fine of CFAF 150,000 to
600,000 or one of these two penalties only;
Whereas N. N aka H is guilty of manslaughter; whereas he expressed
at the hearing regrets for having committed these acts, thus acknowledging
his reprehensible behaviour; whereas he should therefore be sentenced to a
prison term of 12 (twelve) months;
Whereas he has never been the subject of a previous conviction for a
crime or felony under ordinary law; whereas, pursuant to Article 694 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure, the enforcement of his sentence should be
suspended;
B- Cost
Whereas Article 473 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that any