The tragedy dates back to the night of 11th April, 2016, in Geneva, on the Avenue de la Croisette. Alerted by cries of panic followed by muffled noises, several neighbours saw a black man running away from their balconies. On the ground lay Valentina Tarallo, a 28-year-old Italian student about to receive her doctorate in cellular physiology. Rushed to the hospital, she succumbed the next day to a severe traumatic brain injury, according to L’Observateur in its Saturday edition.
At the crime scene, the same source reported, forensic police seized the murder weapon, an iron pipe. The analysis was conclusive as the victim’s blood was mixed with the DNA of her companion, a 40-year-old the Senegalese-Italian man, D Bâ.
Immediately after the murder, an international manhunt was launched. The suspect turned off his phones and left Switzerland by bus and train, filmed by CCTV cameras. A final call to a fellow countryman 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 began a long game of cat and mouse.
From Saint-Louis to Kolda, via Dakar and Keur Mbaye Fall, he regularly vanished under an assumed name of El Hadj Sow. His flight from justice ended after seven years of pursuit in April 2023 in Diourbel, when he attempted to sell his villa in Keur Mbaye Fall for 80 million CFA francs.
Arraigned before the Diourbel Criminal Court midweek, the trial rekindled the pain of the victim’s family, who had travelled from Switzerland. In court, the accused chose total denial to explain the death of his “sweet Valentina”. According to him, the couple was attacked in a dark alley by drug dealers demanding payment from the student. While he admitted to running, he said it was only to “save his life” and out of fear that the Swiss justice system wouldn’t believe him.
This line of defence was dismissed by the prosecution. Condemning the complete 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.
Following the prosecution’s implacable indictment, the Criminal Chamber of the Diourbel High Court found 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.
