‘Bai Lowe tried to make amends for something beyond repair’

In the trial of Bai Lowe, former driver of a death squad in Gambia, prosecutors acknowledged that the defendant had played a secondary role in the crimes of former dictator Yahya Jammeh and then helped to expose them. "But the law expects more from someone who wants to be acquitted of homicide," they pleaded. 

Over the past three years, Germany has presented itself as a leading country for implementing international criminal law, conducting several trials dealing with crimes committed in Syria and Iraq. Now, another universal jurisdiction trial is nearing its end, one that has taken Germany’s justice efforts to the African continent. In the picturesque town of Celle in Northern Germany, Gambian national Bai Lowe is accused of crimes against humanity and murder allegedly committed in his home country twenty years ago. On November 16, the prosecution gave their closing statements, urging the court to sentence Lowe to life imprisonment. The following day, the joint plaintiffs and their lawyers gave their final pleas. They, too, believe in Lowe’s guilt – but emphasized that judging him would only be one step on a long road to justice for post-dictatorship Gambia.

Lowe is alleged to have been a member of Gambian ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh’s notorious death squad known as the “patrol team” or “Junglers”. According to the indictment, “the aim of [the Junglers’] operations was to intimidate the Gambian people and suppress the opposition.” One of the victims was the prominent journalist Deyda Hydara, whose son Baba Hydara has joined the proceedings as a plaintiff. Lowe is accused of being the death squad’s driver. He allegedly drove the killers to their missions. And in the killing of Hydara he is said to have steered the car next to his victim’s vehicle while the others were shooting. The most important evidence against Lowe is an interview he gave in 2013 to the oppositional US-based Freedom Radio, where he described being present during the assassinations. In their final statement, the prosecution acknowledged that he had accidentally incriminated himself while trying to expose Jammeh’s crimes – but concluded that this could not change the answer to the question if he was guilty in a court of law. “He tried to make amends for something that was beyond repair.”

Plaintiffs Omar Nyassi and Baba Hydara have both called for more trials to be held in Gambia, while Bai Lowe's trial is drawing to a close in Germany.