Around 20 suspects have been charged in Senegal and France in an investigation into an alleged international paedophile network whose members targeted students at Quranic schools and exchanged images of children being sexually abused.
Alleged to have been led by a French businessman, the ring was dismantled in February.
Fourteen Senegalese individuals, born between 1976 and 2006, were indicted and imprisoned in early February in Dakar, notably for "paedophilia, corruption of minors and intentional transmission of AIDS".
A fifteenth is on the run in the United States, sources close to the case in Senegal told AFP.
They are suspected of belonging to a network allegedly headed by a Frenchman, who was himself arrested in the town of Beauvais in northern France in April 2025.
Pierre Robert, in his seventies, is accused of leading the "transnational network" since 2017, operating between France, Senegal, Morocco, Mauritania and Mali, according to the same Senegalese sources.
"Other African countries" are also under investigation, a French source close to the matter said.
Robert has been under investigation since last April for human trafficking, aggravated pimping, and rape and sexual assault of minors under 15 years of age.
He is also under investigation for administering a harmful substance to a minor aged under 15 resulting in mutilation or permanent disability, and of inciting the rape of a minor, although the act was not carried out.
Robert denies the charges, which his lawyer Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez says are part of an "entirely biased media narrative" fuelled by the prosecution "which is running rampant in the press".
The 14 arrests in Senegal followed anonymous tips received in August 2024 by OFMIN, the French agency responsible for combating crimes against minors.
The information implicated Robert, who owns several buildings in Beauvais and was a "regular visitor to Senegal".
According to the Senegalese sources, as alleged ringleader Robert sought "to recruit young children aged seven to 13 for the purpose of exploiting them in sexual acts between men, particularly during gay parties organised in a villa" located in Saly Portudal, a seaside resort town south of Dakar.
French accomplices
His "preferred targets were talibes, due to the precarious situation" of the children, who are enrolled in Quranic schools, Senegalese sources close to the case said.
Under the system of schooling, the students, who number in the thousands according to NGOs, are forced to beg in the streets of Senegal, a predominantly Muslim country.
The recruited minors "were to play the role of so-called 'passive partners'" during sexual acts, according to the same sources.
"Images of children engaged in sodomy" were found in exchanges between Robert and one of the 14 people arrested, the same sources said.
In addition to Robert, two men are being prosecuted in Paris for aggravated pimping and human trafficking as part of an organised group, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
One of them, Adrien Bastard, "admitted to having bought sexually explicit videos from Senegalese people", according to the Senegalese sources.
French investigators consider him Robert's "right-hand man" with whom he notably travelled to Morocco, according to a source close to the French investigation.
In his 40s, Bastard, who works in coffin transport, enjoyed a certain notoriety in northern France until his implication in the case: he had ties to the fairground community and was involved in the local "Mister Picardie" men's beauty pageant.
He denies "all charges against him", his lawyer Reda Ghilaci told AFP, pointing out that Bastard, who was initially detained, was released in August under judicial supervision.
The other man, in his sixties, was placed under judicial supervision from the outset. His lawyer Aubin Campilla-Roge declined to comment.
Cameras, parties
In Senegal, investigators travelled to Saly to view the house Robert "used to rent to organise parties where young boys met clients", according to Senegalese sources close to the case.
While in custody, a person implicated as a member of the network claimed that Robert had asked her to recruit underage boys, particularly children aged between five and 10.
She denies having done so "despite the money" she says she received but admitted to having relations "with minors" including a 13-year-old.
Another said she had sent Robert videos showing her "having sex with minors".
The investigation revealed links between Robert and "several Senegalese nationals who were identified through (his) money transfers".
Robert is also suspected of having installed cameras in a flat to film same-sex "sexual encounters" by the occupant.
The case of the international paedophile ring came to light in Senegal at nearly the same time as the arrest of multiple men accused of "unnatural acts", a term used to refer to same-sex relations.
Since then, new arrests have been reported daily in the Senegalese press as a wave of homophobia sweeps society.
Media have regularly conflated the case of the paedophilia ring with the arrest of men for same-sex relations.
Last week, Senegal's National Assembly passed a law doubling the prison sentence for same-sex relations.
© Agence France-Presse
