It began as a case of robbery and assault between fellow Africans. Lives lived on the margins where the value of a cell phone can sometimes be greater than that of a human being. A case like many in the national news which turned into a murder and which as such will be judged in the Court of Assizes. It was July 24, 2023, in Murri park near the Marebello seafront, where Ndiaye Babacar, a 60-year-old Senegalese man, was attacked with kicks in the stomach and a cut to the throat. A few weeks later, the man died in hospital in Cesena. The person responsible for that attack, a 36-year-old Senegalese citizen, had been tracked down and arrested.
The deputy prosecutor Davide Ercolani had asked for immediate judgment and the magistrate of the Court of Rimini Raffaella Ceccarelli, after reformulating the charge to aggravated murder given the death of the 60-year-old, ordered his indictment. The first hearing in the Court of Assizes will be held on June 24th. The man, defended by the lawyer Massimiliano Orrù, had allegedly beaten his compatriot to death during a fight between non-EU citizens which took place in broad daylight in a makeshift bivouac. The brawl broke out around 1pm when, according to the reconstructions of the investigators of the Flying Squad of the Police Headquarters, the 36-year-old was resting in the green area and realized that in his sleep he had been robbed of his smartphone and the few coins he kept in his backpack. He then started arguing with some compatriots who, like him, were bivouacking in the park, accusing them of the theft.
