Switzerland’s attorney general has filed an indictment against Gambia’s former interior minister for crimes against humanity committed under former authoritarian leader Yahya Jammeh, it said in a statement on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: Switzerland's national flag is displayed on the Swiss Federal Criminal Court building in Bellinzona, Switzerland, December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Emma Farge/File PhotoFILE PHOTO: Switzerland's national flag is displayed on the Swiss Federal Criminal Court building in Bellinzona, Switzerland, December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Emma Farge/File Photo
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 Criminal Code. He was arrested by Swiss police in January 2017 after the Geneva-based legal group Trial International filed a complaint under the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows prosecution of the most serious crimes irrespective of where they were committed.The case is set to be heard by Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court at an unspecified date. It will be the country’s second-ever crimes against humanity trial.
“We hope this will generate momentum and that the trial will put pressure on Equatorial Guinea to eventually extradite Jammeh,” he added. Gambia’s former president fled there after a political crisis in 2017.Sheriff Mohammed Kijera from the Gambia Centre for Victims of Human Rights Violations said the indictment set a precedent for the Gambian government to “take its responsibility to bring Yaya Jammeh and his henchmen to face justice.
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