Switzerland charges former Gambian minister with crimes against humanity

Ousman Sonko was interior minister from 2006 to 2016 when he fled to Sweden and then Switzerland, where he applied for asylum.

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, he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Ousman Sonko is accused of having supported, participated in and failed to prevent “systematic and widespread attacks” as part of a crackdown by security forces against Jammeh’s opponents, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Sonko’s lawyer, Philippe Currat, told Reuters on Wednesday that his client disputed the charges and that some of the alleged acts occurred before articles on crimes against humanity came into force in the Swiss Penal Code.

Sonko was interior minister from 2006 to 2016 when he fled to Sweden and then Switzerland, where he applied for asylum.

In January 2017, he was detained by Swiss police after the Geneva-based legal group TRIAL International filed a complaint under the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows the most serious crimes to be prosecuted regardless of where they were committed. .

Sonko has been held in Switzerland ever since.

The case will be heard by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court on an unspecified date. It will be the second trial for crimes against humanity in the country.

“We are very pleased that this is moving forward,” said Philip Grant, CEO of TRIAL International.

“We hope that this will build momentum and that the trial will put pressure on Equatorial Guinea to eventually extradite Jammeh,” he added. The former president of The Gambia fled there after a political crisis in 2017.

Human rights activists in The Gambia welcomed the accusation.

Constable Mohammed Kijera, of the Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations, said the indictment sets a precedent for the Gambian government to “assume its responsibility to bring Yaya Jammeh and his henchmen to justice.”

“Today we rejoice that justice has finally reached one of the key perpetrators against Gambians, whose victims continue to live in pain and misery,” said Madi Jobarteh, a human rights activist.

Former President Jammeh ruled the West African country of 2.5 million people for more than two decades, a period marked by authoritarianism and alleged abuses. Jammeh has denied the allegations of wrongdoing.