Sonko, whose trial opened Monday at a federal criminal court in the Swiss town of Bellinzona, is accused of taking part in “numerous acts of torture, kidnapping, sexual violence and killings” perpetrated between 2000 and 2016 during his time as the head of the Gambia Police Force as well as interior minister.
Sonko was one of the most powerful officials under former president Yahya Jammeh, who ruled the tiny West African state with an iron fist from July 1994 to January 2017. Sonko fled The Gambia in 2016 after falling out with Jammeh and sought asylum in Switzerland.
He was arrested in Bern on 26 January 2017, a day after Swiss-based NGO TRIAL International filed a criminal complaint against him. He’s being tried under Universal Jurisdiction, a legal principle that allows the Swiss authorities to try him there even though his alleged crimes were committed in The Gambia.
“The investigation was conducted over six years and included several trips [by] the Swiss authorities to The Gambia through mutual legal assistance set up between the two countries,” Benoit Mystre, a legal advisor at TRIAL International, tells The Africa Report.
“During the course of the investigation, dozens of witnesses have been heard as well as ten plaintiffs. This is the demonstration of a serious and thorough investigation,” he says.
Gruesome details of abuse
At the Gambia’s historic Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) — set up in July 2017 to probe allegations of gross human rights abuses under Jammeh — multiple victims detailed allegations of abuse against Sonko.
Among them was a police officer whose army husband was killed by Jammeh’s soldiers on accusations of planning a coup d’etat. She told the TRRC how Sonko raped her more than 70 times and how the death of her husband led her to become the former minister’s constant prey.
After more than 870 days of testimony — covering some of the most gruesome details of abuse — from 392 witnesses, including victims, perpetrators and experts, the TRRC submitted its final report to President Adama Barrow on 25 November 2021. It recommended that Sonko be prosecuted for his alleged crimes. The victims are still waiting for justice.
Crimes against humanity and torture have not yet been domesticated and are therefore not offences under Gambia’s domestic criminal laws
“Victims are frustrated at the slow pace of some key aspects of the transitional justice process, particularly criminal accountability of those the TRRC deem to bear the greatest responsibility,” says Abdoulie Fatty, a Gambian lawyer who participated in the drafting of the final TRRC report.
“Their frustration and perhaps apprehension — and maybe suspicion of the whole process as to government’s political will to go after certain perpetrators because of internal political considerations — all adds to victims’ perception that while the Europeans and the US are going after perpetrators for crimes committed in The Gambia, their own government is seemingly reluctant in holding perpetrators accountable for their crimes,” he tells The Africa Report.
Legal challenges
The Gambian authorities often blame jurisdictional and procedural challenges for the slow progress in trying alleged perpetrators. According to Fatty, setting up a hybrid court through an ECOWAS treaty is one of the key challenges.
“The whole essence of setting up the hybrid court to try international crimes is because crimes such as crimes against humanity and torture have not yet been domesticated and are therefore not offences under Gambia’s domestic criminal laws, and thus not triable under our current system,” he says.
“There may be some jurisdictional challenges on the basis that some of these offences were not offences under Gambian law at the time they were committed. However, that is the very reason why such crimes will be tried under the hybrid system because the Treaty will give the hybrid court jurisdiction to try international crimes, notwithstanding they were not crimes at the time they were committed,” Fatty says.
A ray of hope
While alleged perpetrators of gross rights violations in The Gambia continue to enjoy impunity, those living abroad have been legally pursued by those countries. In Germany, Bai Lowe, a member of Jammeh’s death squad known as ‘Junglers’, was sentenced to life in jail in November for crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder in The Gambia.
In the US, Michael Sang Correa, also a member of Junglers, is awaiting trial after being charged with torturing political prisoners in The Gambia following a failed coup in 2006.
These cases are expected to lead the authorities in The Gambia to speed up the transitional justice process it had promised the Jammeh-era victims.
“Seeing Jammeh’s henchmen on trial in Germany, Switzerland — and soon the United States — raises the stakes and puts additional pressure on the Gambian authorities. The time for justice in Gambia is now,” international human rights lawyer Reed Brody says.
For Madi Jobarteh, Gambia’s most prominent civil society activist, Sonko’s trial “shames the Gambia Government for their failure to urgently and earnestly bring perpetrators of Jammeh-era crimes to justice on Gambian soil”.
“It is disappointing that not only has the government failed to seriously implement TRRC recommendations but would also associate with Jammeh’s political party and bring back his surrogates and enablers into the government thereby putting to shame the ‘Never Again’ mantra which was the hallmark of the transitional justice process and system change,” says Jobarteh.
“This trial therefore has only served to expose the lack of political will of the government,” he says.
Lack of justice in Ghana
In Ghana, Martin Kyere, who escaped the 2005 massacre of more than 50 Europe-bound Ghanaian and other West African migrants by Gambian security agents, has frowned at his government for not ensuring justice for its nationals.
On 22 July 2005, Gambian security forces arrested the migrants on suspicion of involvement in a coup attempt against the Jammeh regime, after their boat landed in The Gambia. Members of Junglers testified at the TRRC how they massacred these migrants in the outskirts of Jammeh’s home village of Kanilai, near the Senegal border.
Martin escaped by jumping into the forest from a moving truck carrying other detained migrants before they were killed. He blamed the Ghanaian government for “not taking the issue seriously” and has lost hope that the Gambian authorities would get him justice.
“[The] Gambia government keep[s] promising and yet nothing so we are preparing for ECOWAS court for due compensation,” he says.
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