Sheikh Béthio Thioune, a religious leader of the Thiantacounes (sect of the Mouride brotherhood), in Senegal has been sentenced to ten years with hard labour for complicity to murder.
He was sentenced by the Criminal Chamber of the Mbour Regional Court, 88 km from Dakar.
80 year-old Thioune was tried in absentia because he is on a medical leave in France according to the information provided by his lawyers.
Fifteen of his disciples involved in the deaths of Ababacar Diagne and Bara Sow were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 years to six months.
The Criminal Division of the Mbour Regional Court also ordered the payment of CFA100 million to each of the victims as damages.
The trial of the double murder in Medinatoul Salam was opened on 23 April, seven years after the murders of Ababacar Diagne and Bara Sow on 22 April 2012.
Thioune’s disciples in question had gone to his estate in Medinatoul Salam to renew their allegiance to him.
But since they were persona non grata after a dispute with the religious leader, they were lynched.
In October 2012, when Thioune was imprisoned, his followers caused much damage in the streets of Dakar in protest.
Subsequently, their leader was released under judicial supervision after ten months in detention.
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