The Gambia to prosecute notorious ex-dictator
Publish date: 30 May 2022
Issue Number: 978
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Tenders
The Gambian Government says it will prosecute former dictator Yahya Jammeh for murder, rape, torture and other alleged crimes committed under his 20-year rule. Legalbrief reports that it marks an extraordinary development in a case that made global headlines because of the carnage that occurred under his rule. The Ministry of Justice said it accepted all but two of the 265 recommendations made by a commission that probed alleged crimes committed by the state under Jammeh from July 1994 to January 2017. News24 reports that Jammeh is living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, which has no extradition treaty with The Gambia. The government said it would prosecute all 70 alleged perpetrators named in the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission's (TRRC) twice-delayed report, including former Vice-President Isatou Njie-Saidy and members of the so-called ‘Junglers’ hit squad. Deutsche Welle reports that the commission found that between 240 and 250 people died at the hands of the state during Jammeh's rule – including journalists. Among the notable victims was AFP journalist Deyda Hydara, who was killed by the Junglers. A death squad member identified by the media as B Lowe is on trial in Germany for the killing.
Jammeh was forced into exile in early 2017 after his shock electoral defeat to President Adama Barrow and a six-week crisis that led to military intervention by other West African states. Al Jazeera reports that Barrow, who was re-elected in December, last year formed a political alliance with Jammeh’s former party and nominated two known Jammeh supporters as speaker and deputy speaker of Parliament. ‘Barrow and his government know that the world is watching, (so) they did not have much choice but to accept the TRRC recommendations,’ said Nana-Jo N’dow, the founder of an NGO that campaigns against enforced disappearances and summary executions, whose own father disappeared in 2013. ‘The question now is whether Barrow follows through on these recommendations, and swiftly.’
Abdoulie Fatty, a former local legal consultant for the commission, called the government's decision ‘unprecedented’, notes a News24 report. ‘This level of acceptance of recommendations by government is extraordinary,’ he said. ‘The fact that there is strong emphasis for the prosecution of Jammeh and those who bear the greatest responsibility sends a strong message that government is serious about pursuing him and ensuring that he's held accountable for his crimes,’ he said. ’The government said it was developing a ‘prosecution strategy’ and would set up a special court located within The Gambia, with ‘the option of holding sittings in other countries’. Justice Minister Dawda Jallow on Wednesday said ‘impunity is a kind of incentive that we are not prepared to serve perpetrators’.
Meanwhile, a US court has ordered that a $3m luxurious property in Maryland, belonging to Jammeh, should be seized. Funds raised by the sale of the house should benefit those who were harmed by the former President's ‘acts of corruption and abuse of office’, the US authorities say, according to a BBC News report. An investigation by the Department of Justice found that the money used to buy the six-bedroom house was raised through corruption. ‘Maryland real estate is not a shelter for funds for corrupt rulers who have stolen from their countrymen,’ said Selwyn Smith, one of the agents overseeing the case. Investigations by campaigners a decade ago first highlighted the issue.
