The Prosecutor, on his part, demanded that Y.A. be declared guilty of the acts
alleged against him, and, as sanction, sentence him to ten (10) years of
imprisonment with a fine of fifty million (50,000,000) Francs;
FROM THE ABOVE
On the Form
Whereas the accused appeared in court;
That it is appropriate to rule on the basis of counter-argumentation;
On the Merit
A/ ON THE PUBLIC ACTION
Whereas article 370 of the penal code provides in its paragraphs 1 and 2: "whoever, by
fraud or violence, removes in any form whatsoever, minors from the places where they
were placed by those in authority or under whose direction they were subjected, is
punishable by imprisonment of five to ten years and a fine of 500,000 to 50,000,000
francs;
If the minor thus removed is fifteen years, the maximum penalty will always be
pronounced”;
Whereas in this case D.M. is a minor of fifteen (15) years old, as indicated by the
above-mentioned civil status certificate produced in the file;
That thus, the custody of this child was the responsibility of her father;
Whereas it is common ground that she lived in a conjugal relationship with
the defendant after having left her father without news of her;
That the accused did not dare to inform the said father about this, even
though he was not unaware of the search undertaken by the latter to find his
minor daughter;
That considering the age of the accused and the specific condition of the
victim, it is undeniable that the accused was not unaware of acting in violation
of the rights of Mr. D.T;
That he took advantage of D.M.'s mental vulnerability by making him believe
that they were building a household from which a pregnancy resulted;
That acting in this manner, the accused kidnapped D.M. by using fraud and
malice while she was placed under the authority of her father;
That in these conditions, it is easy to note that the facts pursued are
established with regard to the accused;
That there is reason to find him guilty and to apply the penal code accordingly;
3