When questioned at the hearing, in accordance with the provisions of
article 396 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused declared
that he wanted to be tried immediately;
The Court Registrar read out the documents in the case file; and the
accused was questioned;
The submissions of the Legal Department were heard;
Having received the floor in last position, the accused made her
arguments to defend herself.
The Court Registrar recorded the accused's statements and replies;
Then the Court ruled as follows:
THE COURT
Considering the documents in the file;
Having heard the answers and statements of the accused;
Having heard the submissions of the Legal Department;
Having heard the arguments made by the accused, and who spoke
last
I- FACTS
On 23 January 2019, D.E.S, a 16 year-old Nigerian minor, appeared
at the Central Police Station in Ouahigouya to file a complaint
against E.R.A, whom she accused of pimping;
Based on this information, elements of the police station were then
sent to the scene to question the accused for investigation;
The investigation made it possible to interview the victims and
question the accused;
After hearing D.S.E, she declared that she was orphan and lived with
her mother in a village called Ikot Abassi, in Akwa lbom State in
Nigeria; that in early January 2019, a man who came back to spend
his holidays in the village approached her mother and proposed to
take her to work in a restaurant in Europe; persuaded her mother by
making her believe that the work would be very well paid and that
she could return and leave as she wished; that long before that, he
also convinced his cousin by making the same promises; that it was
by this means that he took them a few days later to an unknown
destination; When they arrived at the village of Ikot Akpene, he
entrusted them to Mike, the brother of the accused, who was waiting
for them there with two other girls; that after a long exchange and
after having taken the number of the accused from Mike, they
boarded again for Lagos where they met the accused for the rest of
the journey; that they were beginning to have doubts; that along the
way, the parents of one of the girls who was with them kept calling
her to tell her to return immediately to the village; that they informed
her that she was being taken for prostitution to an unknown
destination; that she would end up abandoning them along the way;
that once in Lagos, they called the accused who came to pick them
up; that they once again took a bus to Cotonou; that they spent four
days there before finally embarking for Burkina Faso; that during
their stay in Cotonou, the accused issued them with identity cards;
that during an exchange, he informed them that he was taking them