{"id":16722,"date":"2024-05-15T16:09:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T15:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedailyleaks.com\/?p=16722"},"modified":"2024-05-15T16:11:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T15:11:54","slug":"swiss-court-sentences-former-gambian-interior-minister-to-20-years-for-crimes-against-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedailyleaks.com\/swiss-court-sentences-former-gambian-interior-minister-to-20-years-for-crimes-against-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss court sentences former Gambian interior minister to 20 years for crimes against humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"
Switzerland\u2019s top criminal court on Wednesday convicted a former interior minister of Gambia for crimes against humanity over his role in repression committed by the west African country\u2019s security forces under its longtime dictator, a legal advocacy group said.<\/p>\n
Ousman Sonko mi, Gambia\u2019s interior minister from 2006 to 2016 under then-President Yahya Jammeh, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, TRIAL International<\/a> said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n The\u00a0trial, which began in January<\/a><\/span>, was seen by advocacy groups as an opportunity to reach a conviction under \u201cuniversal jurisdiction,\u201d which allows for the prosecution of serious crimes committed abroad.<\/p>\n The verdict was read out in Swiss federal criminal court in the southern town of Bellinzona on Wednesday. Sonko, who was in the courtroom, offered little reaction when a translation of the verdict was read out in English, said TRIAL International\u2019s legal adviser Benoit Meystre, who also attended the proceedings.<\/p>\n Sonko applied for asylum in Switzerland in November 2016\u00a0and was arrested two months later<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n The Swiss attorney general\u2019s office said the indictment against Sonko, filed a year ago, covered alleged crimes during 16 years under Jammeh, whose rule was marked by arbitrary detention, sexual abuse and extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n Sonko was accused of supporting, participating in and failing to stop attacks against opponents in Gambia, an English-speaking West African country that is surrounded by neighboring Senegal. The crimes included killings, torture, rape and numerous unlawful detentions, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n ALSO READ:\u00a0With dozens missing, discovery of one more survivor boosts South Africa building collapse rescue efforts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis unprecedented conviction based on universal jurisdiction in Europe is the confirmation that no one is above the reach of justice,\u201d Meystre said in a text message. \u201cEven the most powerful figures can be brought to account for their participation in mass atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n Madi MK Ceesay, an award-winning journalist who was once arrested under Sonko\u2019s orders and who testified in the trial, said the verdict would likely send a strong signal to Jammeh, who remains in exile in Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n \u201cThe trial demonstrates that no matter what, the long arm of justice can always catch the perpetrator,\u201d Ceesay told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer who attended the trial, said Sonko\u2019s conviction was a pivotal step toward justice for Jammeh\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe long arm of the law is catching up with Yahya Jammeh\u2019s accomplices all around the world, and hopefully will soon catch up with Jammeh himself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sonko was convicted of homicide, torture and false imprisonment as crimes against humanity, while rape charges against him were dropped, Brody wrote on X.<\/p>\n Philip Grant, executive director at TRIAL International, which filed the Swiss case against Sonko before his arrest, said he was the highest-level former official ever to be put on trial in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction.<\/p>\n Sonko, who joined the Gambian military in 1988, was appointed commander of the State Guard in 2003, a position in which he was responsible for Jammeh\u2019s security, Swiss prosecutors said. He was made inspector general of the Gambian police in 2005.<\/p>\n He was removed as interior minister in September 2016, a few months before the end of Jammeh\u2019s government, and left Gambia to seek asylum in Europe.<\/p>\n Ousman Sonko is not to be confused with leading politician Ousmane Sonko in Senegal, who spells his first name slightly differently.<\/p>\n Jammeh seized control in a 1994 coup. He lost Gambia\u2019s 2016 presidential election but refused to concede defeat to Adama Barrow, and ultimately fled amid threats of a regional military intervention to force him from power.<\/p>\n \u201cThe verdict against Ousman Sonko is a milestone in the fight against impunity and a historic success for universal jurisdiction in Switzerland and Europe,\u201d Amnesty Switzerland wrote on X. \u201cEven former ministers can be prosecuted! Victims and their families finally see justice.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Switzerland\u2019s top criminal court on Wednesday convicted a former interior minister of Gambia for crimes against humanity over his role in repression committed by the west African country\u2019s security forces under its longtime dictator, a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,7],"tags":[3056,3055,3057],"coauthors":[25],"class_list":{"0":"post-16722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"category-top-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-former-gambias-interior-minister","11":"tag-ousman","12":"tag-yahya-jammeh"},"yoast_head":"\n