When the judge tells him that he can stand up to explain himself better, Ibrahima He gets up from the chair, extends his arms and narrates in a firm voice before the jury how he picked up Samuel from the ground and tucked him in to protect it from the rain of punches. As he held and protected the boy, Magattebehind him, opened his eyes in a cross, marching backwards and acting as a shield between the young man and the mob that chased him.
Ibrahima Diack and Magatte N’Diaye They are Senegalese, they arrived in Spain by boat and when they Samuel Luiz They killed him in A Coruña in the summer of 2021. They did not have a residence permit. That morning of July 3, 2021, they were walking along the promenade, near their home, when they saw him wounded and helpless on the ground while a group of people kicked him in the middle of the avenue next to Riazor beach.
For two immigrants in an irregular situation with families to feed in their country, getting involved at night in such a violent altercation It was and still is an obvious risk. because to them they could also hit themof course, but also because they didn’t have paperswith all that that entails. Still, neither of them doubted it. They were the only ones from among all the witnesses to the beating who tried to help Samuel.
“There were six or seven people kicking and punching him”
Ibrahima and Magatte They declared this Friday in the trial against the five accused of murdering him that has been held since Wednesday in the Court of A Coruña. When the events occurred they were 37 and 36 years old. They must measure around 1.90 or more. They are strong, fibrous and corpulent. It’s hard to think that not even themwith their height and wingspan, could prevent Samuel’s attackers will end his life with beatingsand that clearly describes the ferocity and violence of the pack that attacked him.
“I was alone, lying on the ground, there was six or seven people kicking and punching him and he couldn’t even defend himself,” Ibrahima said. He explained that after the first melee, Samuel was badly injured, bleeding and stunned, and could barely walk. They took him away on foot, almost dragging him, as best they could, to try to get him out of there.
The aggressors chased them by pushing and jumping around them, while they tried to hit the victim. even more kicks and slapssome of which also hit them both. When they tried to cross the street they gave him the last blow, which knocked Samuel down. “Then those who were chasing us escaped,” he added.
Blow for the defenses
The testimony of Ibrahima and Magatte is also a blow to the defenses, because it calls into question their exculpatory versions and because between the two clearly identified before the jury to each and every one of the accused sitting in the dock, whom they placed as members of the group that attacked, pursued and hunted down and killed Samuel.
Ibrahima, who was walking with his back to them holding him in his arms, could only make out Alejandro Freire, Yumbawhom other witnesses have identified as the person who had previously tried to strangle him with his arm. Ibrahima was forceful: “It’s that one over there,” he said, pointing with his finger and his arm extended to the corner of the bench where Yumba He sits down with his lawyer. “I stayed with his face,” he clarified.
Magatte, on the other hand, recognized them all. This difference makes sense, because, unlike Ibrahima, who walked facing them with his back turned and protecting Samuel with his armshe could see their faces while he blocked their path, walking backwards with his people in a cross. Magatte first pointed to Diego Mountainto Catherine Silva already Kaio Amaral Silvaand immediately afterwards, Alejandro Miguez and Yumba. “It’s everyone who is here,” he declared.
During their interrogations, the defense showed with their questions that neither Ibrahima nor Magatte had been so explicit in their initial testimonies nor during the recognition rounds, and asked that their Statements before the police and the Court of Instruction, which in his opinion contradict Friday’s statement.
They have that right, recognized in the Jury Law. The Court of A Coruña must now evaluate them and decide if they have greater evidentiary value that what is stated in oral hearing interrogationssomething that is not usually the norm in criminal proceedings.
“If we had had papers…”
Magatte and Ibrahima also explained Why hadn’t they called the police? when they first saw Samuel beaten by the packnor to the ambulance, later, when he fell mortally wounded and was left lying on the road again, this time unconscious. “It was full of blood, I was bleeding everywhere“We were afraid, we had never seen anything like this,” Ibrahima justified. “If we had had paperswe would have called the police. But we didn’t have them,” he summarized.
When the herd dispersed, then yes, several people approached Samuel. Among them Alexander, a young man who saw the entire chase from afar and who He didn’t intervene because he was afraid.. He followed her from a distance, and because of that, he said, he couldn’t identify anyone. He did point out that someone had burst a bottle in the tumult, although he couldn’t say if it was on Samuel’s body or on the floor. “I remember a hand raised with it and then the sound of the bottle breaking,” he said.
Neither Ibrahima nor Magatte heard or remember hearing that. Also not calling anyone fagot to Samuel or uttering homophobic insults. What it means some relief for the defenses, especially those of Catherine and Diego, on whom the aggravating factor of discrimination based on sexual orientation in the accusation of murder with treachery and cruelty that the prosecution accuses them of.
“You fucking faggot!”
Yes you heard that expression Lina Fernandez, the friend who accompanied Samuel that night and along with Ibrahima and Magatte, the only person who risked his life to try to save his. She was the first to testify on Friday, and said that they passed Diego and Catherine on the walk, and that the first threatened to kill Samuel when he thought they were recording him with their cell phone when in reality they were making a video call. The person on the other side was Vanessa, Lina’s then partner, who also testified yesterday and who was able to see and hear the incident until the video call was lost.
Lina assured that Diego and Catherine, who were a couple at the time, addressed Samuel calling him “fucking faggot“, and that the second not only did not intervene to stop Diego, as he declared last Wednesday before the jurybut rather he pushed her away and threw her to the ground to prevent her from helping the victim: “He told me: ‘Get out of there, you’re not doing anything!'”
A couple helped her up from the ground, and then He saw the pack on Samuelwho was still alive when Ibrahima and Magatte appeared. She accompanied them but returned to the scene because Samuel himself asked her to look for his cell phone, because he had dropped it or it had been taken away. It was the last time she saw him conscious. The next, just a few minutes later, lay helpless and without knowledge on the asphalt.
Humanitarian values
Díaz days after the event, the Government agreed to regularize the situation of the two Senegalese citizens. And during the hearing this Friday, Yumba’s lawyer wanted to question Ibrahima and Magatte in that sense, pretending imply that this recognition of their actions could have conditioned their testimonies, bringing them closer to the Prosecutor’s story and the accusations.
The judge presiding over the trial stopped the lawyer cold, for the pertinent legal and procedural reasons. Although from a moral point of view it is also difficult to believe that this line made any sense. Just look at Ibrahima with arms extendedstanding before a jury thousands of kilometers from his country, and imagining everything he and Magatte risked to try save someone else’s life. There should be an image that best represents civic behavior and humanitarian values.
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