Cheikhou Oumar Hanne, not Cheikh Oumar Anne, is the defendant
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Senego
The registry of a Senegalese criminal court identified the defendant in an alleged fraud case as Cheikhou Oumar Hanne, not former minister Cheikh Oumar Anne. The defence says the confusion concerns proceedings linked to alleged fraud, complicity and forgery involving public funds, according to Leral.
Lawyers for Cheikhou Oumar Hanne dispute that their client is the person being prosecuted in proceedings over alleged fraud involving public funds, complicity and forgery. In a clarification reported by Leral, they said checks with the court registry established that the person concerned is Cheikhou Oumar Hanne, a computer operator born in Dakar in 1972, and not former minister and former director of the Centre des œuvres universitaires de Dakar (COUD), Cheikh Oumar Anne.
According to the defence, Cheikhou Oumar Hanne was charged by investigating judge Mamadou Seck of the eighth investigating chamber, along with several other people, and an order dated 11 November 2021 sent them for trial. The lawyers maintain that no case involves their client. Abdoulaye Diouck is among those named in the proceedings.
The confusion comes as Cheikh Oumar Hann, a former COUD director and former Senegalese minister, also denied that he was due to appear on 4 February 2027 in the case, describing the announcement of the referral for trial as a “gross mistake”. Investigations by the National Office for the Fight against Fraud and Corruption (OFNAC) into COUD management had identified, for 2014-2015, alleged practices involving the splitting of public contracts, irregular subsidies and suspicions of embezzlement of public funds and forgery.
