Rattrapé à Diourbel après 7 ans de cavale : El Hadj Sow prend la perpétuité
The tragedy dates back to the night of April 11, 2016, in Geneva, on the Avenue de la Croisette. Alerted by cries of panic followed by thuds, several neighbors saw a Black man running away from their balconies. Lying on the ground was Valentina Tarallo, a 28-year-old Italian student about to receive her doctorate in cellular physiology. Emergencyly evacuated, she succumbed the next day to a severe traumatic brain injury, according to L'Observateur in its edition of Saturday, May 16.
At the crime scene, the same source indicates, forensic police seized the murder weapon: an iron pipe. The analyses were conclusive: the victim's blood was mixed with the DNA of her partner, the Senegalese-Italian D. Bâ (40 years old), identified in two separate locations on the object.
Seven years on the run and using assumed identities
Immediately after the murder, an international manhunt was launched. The suspect switched off his phones and left Switzerland by bus and train, filmed by CCTV cameras. A final call to a fellow Swiss national confirmed that the fugitive had headed for Senegal. In October 2018, the Geneva prosecutor's office took over the case, and the Dakar Research Section then began a long game of cat and mouse.
From Saint-Louis to Kolda, via Dakar and Keur Mbaye Fall, he regularly vanished into thin air under an assumed name: El Hadj Sow. His flight ended after seven years of pursuit, in April 2023 in Diourbel, when he tried to sell his villa in Keur Mbaye Fall for 80 million CFA francs.
A complete denial in the face of material evidence
On Tuesday, before the Criminal Court of Diourbel, the trial rekindled the pain of the victim's family, who had traveled from Switzerland. In the dock, the accused chose total denial to explain the death of his "sweet Valentina." According to his version of events, the couple was attacked in a dark alley by drug dealers demanding payment from the student. While he admitted to running, it was only to "save his own life" and out of fear that the Swiss justice system wouldn't believe him.
A line of defense swept aside by the prosecution. Condemning the total lack of remorse and the coldness of a man "fed and housed in Geneva" by the woman he killed, the prosecutor argued that the evidence left behind corroborated the murder scenario point by point.
Verdict: life imprisonment and a fine of 1 billion CFA francs
Following the prosecution's relentless indictment, the Criminal Chamber of the Diourbel High Court found D. Bâ, alias El Hadj Sow, guilty of "murder with acts of barbarity, identity theft, complicity, and forgery of public documents." Sentenced to life imprisonment, he will have to pay one billion CFA francs in damages to the heirs of Valentina Tarallo, concludes the daily newspaper of the Future Media Group.
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