just removed the knife and placed it on his thigh to frighten her; that she asked if he had come to kill her; that he responded that he did not want to hurt her; that his intent was to make her stop the insults and denigration she was uttering against them; that he regretted the acts he committed at his aunt’s house given that he acted in anger; that he promised never to do it again; When he was brought before the Legal Department and heard, O.S.M partially admitted the acts of which he was accused and reiterated the statements he had made during the preliminary investigation; The State Counsel of Faso was prosecuting him in a flagrante delicto proceeding for death threats pursuant to Article 521-4 of the Penal Code; Before the Bar in Court, the accused partially admitted the acts of which he was accused; he admitted to have threatened her with a knife, but denied having said that he wanted to kill her; When called upon to file civil claims, T.F declared that she wasn’t filing any; After having summarized the facts, the Legal Department requested that the accused be punished for the charges of death threats and sentenced to a non-suspended prison term of 24 (twenty-four) years and to a fine of CFAF 1,000,000 (one million); The accused apologized profoundly and pleaded for the clemency of the Court; At the end of the proceedings, the Court delivered the following judgement; II- PROCEDURE A-GUILT OF THE ACCUSED Whereas O.S.M is prosecuted for acts of death threat pursuant to Article 521-4; that according to this article, “whoever makes death threats by anonymous or signed writing, by image, symbol, insignia or any other form of communication relating to death, shall be punished with imprisonment of from two to ten years and with a fine of from CFAF 2,000,000 (two million) to CFAF 5,000,000 (five million)”. That according to this article, for the offence of the death threat to be constituted, there must be a physical act of death threat by anonymous or signed writing, by image, symbol, insignia, and a criminal intent; Whereas in the case at hand, it is clear that the accused did not threaten the victim by writing, image, symbol or insignia; that in the absence of the physical act of death threat, the accused cannot therefore be guilty of this offence; However, considering that the accused admitted having gone to the victim’s house with a knife ; that even if he claims he did not utter any verbal threat, eye witnesses, including OUEDRAOGO W.N. Fadima and OUEDRAOGO Ramata stated that he openly declared that he will “take her life if she did not stop insulting and denigrating him and his 4