to Burkina Faso to work as prostitutes; that they expressed their
refusal to continue the journey; that they were threatened by the
accused; that she forced them to embark for Burkina Faso and
informed them that they would be entrusted to a woman; that
on the way, during a police check, U.M.Q was arrested and the
accused remained there with her to negotiate her release; that
they continued with the bus to the station; that once at the
station, she got off to relieve herself and saw policemen; that she
then went towards them and revealed to them the situation in which
they had arrived in Burkina Faso; that they took her and M.A.F to
the police station and passed E.R and U.M.Q; then proceeded to
arrest the latter and took them all to the police station;
When heard in turn, M.A.F and U.M.Q echoed the facts stated by
D.E.S;
When questioned, E.R acknowledged the facts; she explained that
she wanted to do a favour to a woman named Rose who was in
Ouahigouya; that while she was in Benin, she received a call from
the latter asking her to go to Nigeria to bring girls to Ouahigouya;
that she made a deposit of one hundred thousand CFA francs in her
account for this purpose; that she went there and brought the girls
but was unfortunately questioned by the police upon arrival in
Ouahigouya;
Upon completion of the investigation, E.R was referred to the State
Counsel of Faso who also received the report of the investigation;
Before this magistrate, she reiterated her previous statements, while
specifying that it was Rose's husband who recruited the girls and she
was just in charge of transporting them to Ouahigouya; She was then
prosecuted for human trafficking;
At the bar of the court, the accused maintained her statements made
during the preliminary investigation and during her interrogation
before the State Counsel of Faso; she specified, however, that she had
informed the victims of the activity that they were going to carry out
once in Burkina Faso and they had consented to it;
As for the victims, they refuted her statements, explaining that it was
under the accused's threats and constraints that they agreed to continue
their journey;
After the requisitions of the prosecution, the accused asked for
clemency and then the court ruled as follows;
II- PROCEDURE
A- Prosecution
Whereas within the meaning of Article 511-2 of the Penal Code, the
offence of human trafficking consists in recruiting, transporting,
transferring, sheltering or receiving a minor for the purpose of
exploitation; that article 511-3 of the same code specifies that the
consent of a victim of human trafficking does not suppress the
offence; that the offence thus referred to in order to be constituted