Switzerland's highest criminal court on Wednesday convicted a former Gambian interior minister of crimes against humanity for his role in the repression by the West African country's security forces. under the rule of its longtime dictator, a legal advocacy group said.
Ousman Sonko , Gambia 's interior minister from 2006 to 2016 under the presidency of Yahya Jammeh , was sentenced to 20 years in prison, TRIAL International reported on social media platform X.
The trial, which began in January, was seen by advocacy groups as an opportunity to secure a conviction under "universal jurisdiction," which allows serious crimes committed abroad to be prosecuted .
The verdict was handed down on Wednesday by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona , in the south of the country. Sonko, who was in the courtroom, had little reaction when the English translation of the verdict was read, said Benoit Meystre, legal adviser to TRIAL International, who also attended the proceedings.
Sonko requested asylum in Switzerland in November 2016 and was arrested two months later.
Extrajudicial executions
The Swiss attorney general's office said the indictment against Sonko, filed a year ago, covered alleged crimes committed during 16 years under Jammeh, whose rule was marked by arbitrary detentions , sexual abuse and extrajudicial executions .
Mr. Sonko is accused of having supported and participated in attacks against opponents in Gambia, an English-speaking West African country surrounded by neighboring Senegal , and of not having stopped these attacks. The crimes include murder, torture, rape and numerous illegal detentions, prosecutors said.
“This unprecedented conviction based on universal jurisdiction in Europe confirms that no one is beyond the reach of justice ,” Mr. Meystre said in a text message. “Even the most powerful figures can be held accountable for their participation in mass atrocities.”
Madi MK Ceesay, an award-winning journalist who was arrested on Sonko's orders and who testified during the trial, said the verdict would likely send a strong signal to Jammeh, who remains in exile in Equatorial Guinea .
Torture
“This trial demonstrates that, whatever happens, the long arm of justice can always catch up with the guilty ,” Mr. Ceesay told the Associated Press.
Reed Brody, a U.S. human rights lawyer who attended the trial, said Mr. Sonko's conviction was a decisive step toward justice for Mr. Jammeh's victims.
“The long arm of the law is catching up with Yahya Jammeh's accomplices around the world and will hopefully soon catch up with Jammeh himself ,” he said.
Mr. Sonko was found guilty of homicide , torture and false imprisonment as crimes against humanity, while the rape charges against him were dropped, Mr. Brody wrote on X.
Philip Grant, executive director of TRIAL International, which filed the Swiss case against Sonko before his arrest, said he was the highest-ranking former official ever tried in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction .
Rebellion
Mr. Sonko, who joined the Gambian army in 1988, was named commander of the State Guard in 2003, a position in which he was responsible for Mr. Jammeh's security, according to Swiss prosecutors. He was appointed Inspector General of the Gambia Police in 2005.
He was dismissed as interior minister in September 2016, months before the end of Jammeh's government, and left Gambia to seek asylum in Europe.
Jammeh seized power in a coup d'état in 1994. He lost Gambia's 2016 presidential election, but refused to acknowledge his defeat to Adama Barrow , and eventually fled amid threats from a regional military intervention to force him from power.
“The verdict against Ousman Sonko is an important step in the fight against impunity and a historic success for universal jurisdiction in Switzerland and Europe ,” wrote Amnesty Switzerland on X. “Even former ministers can be prosecuted! victims and their families finally get justice."
