World News | Switzerland charges former Gambian minister with crimes against humanity

BERLIN, April 18 (AP) Swiss prosecutors said Tuesday they have charged Gambia’s former interior minister with crimes against humanity over his alleged involvement in a years-long campaign by West African state security forces against opponents of its longtime dictator. repression.

Ousman Sonko was Gambia’s home affairs minister from 2006 to 2016 under then-President Yahya Jammeh. He applied for asylum in Switzerland in November 2016 and was arrested in January 2017.

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The indictment, filed Monday at the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, covers alleged crimes between 2000 and 2016, the attorney general’s office said.

The office said in a statement that Sonko “is accused, in his various capacities and positions, of supporting, participating in, and failing to prevent, systematic and widespread attacks that were part of the Gambian security forces’ crackdown on all opponents of the regime.” Part of” a statement.

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Jammeh, who seized control in a 1994 coup, lost Gambia’s presidential election in 2016 but refused to concede defeat to Adama Barrow. He eventually fled threats of regional military intervention to force him out.

Barrow’s government announced last year that it was creating a special prosecutor’s office to investigate serious human rights abuses and could bring charges against Jammeh.

The investigation follows recommendations from the Truth, Reconciliation and Compensation Commission, which said Jammeh should have been prosecuted for murder, torture and sexual violence under his rule.

Swiss prosecutors said Sonko joined the Gambian army in 1988 and was appointed commander of the National Guard in 2003, responsible for Jammeh’s security. In 2005, he was appointed Commissioner of Police in The Gambia.

In September 2016, months before the Jammeh government ended, Sonko was sacked as interior minister and left The Gambia to seek asylum in Europe.

Swiss prosecutors said they conducted multiple interviews with suspects and about 40 interviews with accusers, witnesses and others with information, and traveled to Gambia six times during the investigation.

The attorney general’s office said it “specifically charged the defendants with participating in, ordering, assisting and/or failing to prevent killings, acts of torture, rape and multiple instances of illegal detention in five incidents between 2000 and 2016” (AP )

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)