Justice : Le Président des Magistrats dénonce une institution « submergée » et « sous haute pression »
Cheikh Ba, President of the Union of Magistrates of Senegal (UMS), has sounded the alarm about the state of the judicial system. A guest on the program "Point de Vue" on RTS this Sunday, November 16, he attributed the frustrations of those seeking justice and the lack of speed to an unsustainable workload and a critical staff shortage.
Mr. Ba emphasized that, although the Senegalese judiciary is "one of the strongest on the continent," it is hampered by structural constraints. Senegal has only 546 judges for a population of 18 million. Only 425 of them are actually serving in courts.
To illustrate this crisis, he cited regional examples: in Kaolack, a single investigating judge manages 750 cases, while in Ziguinchor, one magistrate is responsible for 250 cases.
Faced with this situation, Cheikh Ba's statement is unequivocal: "Justice is not slow, it is overwhelmed."
The shortage of court clerks also contributes to this "progressive paralysis", compromising the principle of speed.
The state of the judicial system has a significant impact on the prison administration. Senegal has 15,654 inmates, 7,077 of whom are in pretrial detention. No new large prisons have been built since independence, resulting in overcrowding three times over. This situation is pushing the prison administration to the brink of collapse.
When questioned about the practice of arrest warrants, which is often a source of controversy, Mr. Ba defended the magistrates' approach.
He clarified that decisions are made "on a case-by-case basis," depending on the seriousness of the facts and the imperatives of public safety. It is a "responsible choice" when dealing with a violent, dangerous, or repeat offender.
He did, however, recall that the investigating judge remains totally independent and has the prerogative to close certain cases quickly when the conditions are met.
Commentaires (12)
Élimination de Mamadou Dia.
Hold-up électoral de 1993 par le Conseil constitutionnel, suivi de fausses accusations contre Wade pour l’assassinat de Maître Sèye.
Élimination de Karim Wade par la CREI.
Élimination de Khalifa Sall par un rapport de l’IGE qui n’avait pourtant jamais recommandé son arrestation.
Élimination de Sonko pour un délit de diffamation imaginaire.
Les enseignants ont des classes de 80 élèves et plus.
Les avocats ont des piles de dossiers à traiter
Les agents des impôts et domaines, de la douane etc... eux aussi sont submergés.
Vous êtes très bien rémunérés dans un pays sous développé.
Faites votre travail.
De plus on a tout vu entre 2021 et 2024 ici au Senegal.
Fii la khéwé,
Nous ne sommes pas des Sri Lankais, on a bien vu.
N essayez pas de fuir vos responsabilites!!!
Participer à la Discussion
Règles de la communauté :
💡 Astuce : Utilisez des emojis depuis votre téléphone ou le module emoji ci-dessous. Cliquez sur GIF pour ajouter un GIF animé. Collez un lien X/Twitter ou TikTok pour l'afficher automatiquement.