A verdict without surprise, in accordance with the requisitions. A 28-year-old man was sentenced Friday by the Bas-Rhin Assize Court to 25 years in prison for the rape and murder of his girlfriend in 2019 in Strasbourg. The sentence imposed on Dickson Frimpong, a Ghanaian national, was accompanied by a permanent ban from French territory once the sentence was served, said one of his lawyers, Christophe Cervantes. "At this stage, there is no decision made" on a possible appeal, added the counsel, whose client had admitted at trial to killing Sandra Baumann, 25, but denied the rape as well as the homicidal intent.

It was during yet another dispute that the drama was knotted on the night of April 17 to 18, 2019 while the young woman who, according to testimonies, was considering ending the relationship, but without succeeding. They had met in 2012, when the accused arrived in France. Sandra had then helped him in his administrative procedures, says the regional daily Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace. The medical examiner found 52 wounds on the victim's body, including a fatal wound to the throat, the newspaper said. The accused's semen was also found in her vagina. The accused claimed to have responded to Sandra's blows, a version swept away by the prosecution which pointed instead to the "relentlessness" of the accused on the victim, struck with a "murderous rage" and a "homicidal will", specify the DNA. Alerted by a friend of the young man whom he had called, the police had gone to the couple's Strasbourg apartment on April 18 and discovered the body of the young woman in the bathtub.

The sentence, "perfectly deserved" and "just", "soothes a little" the civil parties, including the foster parents with whom the victim had been placed at the age of two, responded to AFP Caroline Bolla, one of their counsel. Sandra, who worked at the Family Allowances Fund, was "solar, ambitious" and "wanted to move forward" despite "an extremely difficult childhood the first two years (...) She had managed to get out of this condition," she added.

  • Femicide
  • Violence against women
  • Domestic violence
  • Sexual assault
  • Rape
  • Strasbourg
  • Bas-Rhin
  • Alsace
  • Grand East
  • Justice