Switzerland’s attorney general has filed an indictment against The Gambia’s former interior minister for crimes against humanity committed under former authoritarian leader Yahya Jammeh, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ousman Sonko is accused of having supported, participated in, and failed to prevent “systematic and generalized attacks” as part of a repressive campaign by security forces against Jammeh’s opponents, the Office of the Attorney General said. In January 2017, he was arrested by Swiss police after the Geneva-based legal group TRIAL International filed a complaint under the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows for the prosecution of the most serious crimes irrespective of where they were committed.
Human rights activists in The Gambia welcomed the indictment. Sheriff Mohammed Kijera from the Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations said the indictment set a precedent for The Gambian government to “take its responsibility to bring Yaya Jammeh and his henchmen to face justice.”
Read more here.
