Abubacarr
Tambadou, the attorney general and minister of Justice has made it clear that
former President Yahya Jammeh will be immediately arrested and charged if he
ever returns to the country.
“If
former President Yahya Jammeh ever comes back to this country, he will face
immediate arrest and charges of the most serious kind and no amount of
irresponsible idle talk or political brinkmanship will prevent this from
happening,” Mr. Tambadou warned.
“He
will be subjected to an accountability process like any ordinary accused person
in this country.”
Minister
Tambadou was speaking on Sunday during the opening of the Legal Year 2020. “So,
let me make this clear once again, the TRRC is only a fact finding
investigative process, but unlike other truth commissions elsewhere around the
world, ours is the first of its kind with a mandate to identify for prosecution
those who bear the greatest responsibility for the human rights violations and
abuses.”
After
a year of public hearings, and as we enter into the second and possibly final
year of hearings, he said, it can no longer be ruled out that crimes against
humanity have been committed in The Gambia, between July 1994 and January 2017,
under former President Yahya Jammeh, and that those who will be identified by
the TRRC will face certain prosecution in the most serious form.
“There
will be accountability of the highest order for these crimes and I assure the
victims that it is now only a question of when, and not if. Make no mistake
about it, barring any findings or recommendations of the TRRC to the contrary.”
According
to him, no one can deny that there’s been a marked improvement in the judicial
and legal sectors in the New Gambia. “Of course, there is still room for
improvement and the government will be the first to acknowledge that but the
fact remains that great progress has been made. Greater freedoms, especially in
the area of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are now a common
feature of our new democracy.”
“There
is no longer detention without trial and there has been significant reduction
in reported cases of brutality or torture.”
“Institutions
like The Gambia Police Force has now established a Human Rights Unit to receive
complaints and provide prompt responses to reports of abuse and police
brutality,” he disclosed, saying “effective civilian oversight mechanisms such
as the National Assembly Select Committees or the National Human Rights
Commission are now fully operational.
Our
democracy, the minister added, is indeed taking a positive shape and “we should
all be proud that only three years on from having one of the most repressive
political environments in the world, our country is fast becoming a globally
recognised free, open and democratic society.”
The
establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, he added, and its
numerous activities since then, underscores the significant advances this
government has made in its governance reform agenda.
Recall:
Rambo Jatta, the deputy leader of the opposition Alliance for Patriotic
Reorientation and Construction (APRC) during his interview with BBC Focus on
Africa said immediately arresting Jammeh will cause ‘bloodshed’ in the country,
thus urging people not to even discuss about.