Police officer jailed 20 years with hard labour for killing student

A criminal court in the Senegalese capital Dakar has handed down a 20-year sentence with hard labour to a policeman Sidy Mohammed Boughaleb for the murder of a student in August 2014.

Boughaleb was convicted of shooting to death Bassirou Faye a student of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar when students of the university were protesting over payments of their scholarships.

The court also ordered him to pay CFA 50 million (approx. $85,000) in damages.

Boughaleb had pleaded not guilty to the charge claiming he was not on the university campus at the time of the murder. He said he had gone to seek treatment for a bullet wound he sustained during the clash.

But a key witness, who was close to the deceased, said Boughaleb shot Faye. Two other officers initially charged in the case were as a result dismissed.

The sentence handed to Sidy Mohammed Boughaleb is considered the first of its kind in the country.

Every year, the university community commemorates the death of Balla Gaye, another university student who was murdered in 2001 during a demonstration.

His killer has still not been found and no one has been convicted for the crime.