A former Gambian Interior Minister goes on trial on Monday, January 8 in Switzerland, accused of having committed crimes against humanity in the context of the repression by security forces against opponents of the regime of Yahya Jammeh, the country’s leader. of West Africa for 22 years (1994-2017).
Ousman Sonko, Gambia’s Interior Minister between 2006 and 2016, was taken on Monday in a police van to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, in the southern town of Bellinzona. The Swiss attorney general’s office said the indictment against Sonko covers alleged crimes committed over 16 years under Jammeh, whose rule was marked by arbitrary detentions, sexual abuse and extrajudicial executions.
Sonko held several senior positions in the Gambian security forces before becoming minister in 2006. Swiss justice accuses him of participating in, ordering or failing to prevent murders, acts of torture, rape and illegal detentions against opponents of the Jammeh regime among 2000 and 2016. He denies these charges.
Philippe Currat, the defendant’s lawyer, asked the court to drop the case, citing problems with the investigations. “From the beginning I have been shocked by the way this file has been handled,” he told Reuters. He said some of the prosecution’s evidence had been based on secret hearings held in The Gambia and that those interviewed had not been informed of their rights.
Currat claims he can prove Sonko was abroad for much of the period of the rape allegations. He will also argue that many of the alleged crimes against humanity occurred before the Swiss law that allows crimes committed abroad by foreign citizens to be tried came into force in 2011, and are therefore not admissible.
Human rights groups hailed Ousman Sonko’s trial as an opportunity to secure a conviction under “universal jurisdiction,” a principle that allows for the prosecution of serious crimes committed abroad and is used primarily for war crimes. and against humanity.
Trials of this type are very important according to Alain Werner, founder and director of the Swiss NGO Civitas Maxima, which monitors war criminals. “It is likely that the International Criminal Court will never deal with these cases for technical reasons,” Werner told Swiss radio RTS. “Trials before national courts are now the only way for victims to get justice,” he added.
Sonko was dismissed as Interior Minister in September 2016, a few months before the end of Jammeh’s government, and left for Europe, where he sought asylum in Switzerland. When the NGO Trial International found out, he filed a complaint. Ousman Sonko was arrested in January 2017, and has remained in provisional detention since then.
Yahya Jammeh seized control of The Gambia in a coup in 1994. He lost the presidential election in 2016, but refused to concede defeat to Adama Barrow, and eventually fled amid threats of regional military intervention to force him out. the power.
Philip Grant, executive director of TRIAL International, said he was the “highest former official tried under the principle of universal jurisdiction in Europe.” The trial will continue until January 30, and the verdict is not expected before March. He could face anywhere from 5 years in prison to life in prison.
