For roughly 16 years Ousman Sonko wielded sweeping energy in Gambia’s safety equipment, crushing opposition to the West African nation’s authoritarian president.
On Monday, Mr. Sonko entered a Swiss court docket accused of crimes towards humanity, in what attorneys name a major milestone for Gambia, Switzerland and the broader worldwide effort to prosecute conflict crimes and people who facilitated them.
Of their indictment, Swiss prosecutors have accused Mr. Sonko, performing alone or as a part of a gaggle, of getting “intentionally killed, tortured, raped and unlawfully disadvantaged people of their liberty.”
Mr. Sonko, who turns 55 on Tuesday, denies the fees. His lawyer, Philippe Currat, promised a strong problem to the expenses and the admissibility of the prosecution’s proof. The alleged crimes befell between 2000 and 2016, a interval of brutal repression in Gambia through which the president, Yahya Jammeh, tightened his grip over the nation.
Throughout that point, Mr. Sonko rose to commander of the presidential guard, chief of police and inside minister, a portfolio he held for 10 years, changing into Mr. Jammeh’s longest serving minister.
The 2 males reportedly fell out in 2016 — the identical yr Mr. Jammeh lost a bid for re-election and commenced a quick, failed effort to cling to power. After dropping his job, Mr. Sonko sought asylum in Switzerland that yr.
The Swiss authorities arrested him in 2017 after TRIAL Worldwide, a human rights group primarily based in Geneva, filed a felony criticism towards him on the authorized precept of common jurisdiction, which permits states to prosecute severe crimes no matter the place they have been dedicated.
European prosecutors have pursued comparable instances in recent times, delivering prolonged jail sentences for, amongst others, two Syrian intelligence officers convicted of crimes against humanity in Germany in 2022, and a former Iranian prosecutor, arrested whereas touring in Sweden and convicted of war crimes for his half in mass execution and torture. Mr. Sonko, as a former authorities minister, is the highest-ranking state official to be tried in a European court docket on the premise of common jurisdiction.
Mr. Sonko’s trial is being keenly adopted in Gambia, the place victims’ calls for for accountability for Mr. Jammeh and his allies have made gradual progress. His successor, President Adama Barrow, has dedicated to prosecuting Mr. Jammeh, now in exile in Equatorial Guinea. However he has additionally allied politically with members of the ex-president’s celebration who’ve been accused of attempting to stall any motion.
“The Sonko trial is lengthy overdue, the magnitude of struggling below his management within the ministry of inside is overwhelming” Ayesha Jammeh, a relative of the ex-president whose father was killed by authorities brokers in 2005, mentioned by telephone from Gambia’s capital, Banjul, the place she works at a middle supporting victims of abuse.
“It’s a cheerful second for personally seeing individuals who dedicated human rights violations are lastly being taken to court docket,” she added. “This tells them it might take a very long time however finally the arm of justice will meet up with them for the intense crimes the have dedicated.”
The costs towards Mr. Sonko embody collaborating within the homicide of a soldier accused of plotting a coup, Almamo Manneh, and repeatedly raping and beating Mr. Manneh’s widow, one of many plaintiffs within the trial. He’s additionally accused of involvement within the torture of a gaggle of suspected coup plotters and within the arrest and torture of an opposition celebration chief, Ebrima Solo Sandeng, who died in state custody in 2016.
The Swiss court docket listening to is one in all a collection of worldwide trials that Gambian activists hope will spur the federal government to motion. A German court docket in November sentenced Bai Lowe, a member of an elite army unit, to life imprisonment for homicide and crimes towards humanity. One other member of the unit, Michael Correa, is ready to go on trial in the US in September on charges of torture.
“These instances are actually vital for victims and survivors as a result of it exhibits some kind of justice is feasible and it exhibits the Gambia that it’s vital to maneuver additional,” Ela Mathews, an legal professional on the Middle for Justice and Accountability, a gaggle performing for some plaintiffs within the Correa case.
After the German ruling in November, “each single Gambian was ,” recalled Fatoumatta Sandeng, the daughter of the murdered opposition chief and a plaintiff within the Swiss trial.
“If the German authorities can do that, how in regards to the Gambia? What are you doing within the Ministry of Justice, what have you ever been doing all this time?” she requested. “It does deliver warmth and I do know the Ousman Sonko trial goes to deliver extra stress on the Gambia authorities to do one thing.”
The trial can be one thing of a milestone for Switzerland, which rights activists say had lagged behind different European international locations in pursuing worldwide crimes. Mr. Sonko’s indictment adopted a fancy six-year investigation, with a number of visits by Swiss investigators to Gambia to interview victims and acquire witness testimony.
It might additionally set authorized precedents as the primary Swiss case the place the defendant is charged not just for his personal actions however for the actions of subordinates.
“With this case, the Swiss authorities display their will to totally examine worldwide crimes and to not let alleged perpetrators of violations take pleasure in a protected haven right here,” mentioned Benoit Meystre, a lawyer for TRIAL Worldwide.
