Following the TRRC recommendations to prosecute persons adversely mentioned in the grave human rights violations committed under the Yahya Jammeh regime, a set of experts have been put together by the Ministry of Justice to set up the office of the special prosecutor for the special court.
“The Ministry has a strict policy to leave the evidence, materials and all findings of the TRRC under key and lock until the appointment of the special prosecutor. [It is meant] to create a parallel investigation through this prosecutor’s office,” Ida Person said in an interview on Friday at her office.
Earlier in the month, one Lamin Jobe, a brother to the late Baba Jobe, former APRC Majority Leader who was killed under state custody in 2011, walked to our offices to complain against the fact that he sees ex-jungler, Alhagie Kanyi, driving a government vehicle as Deputy Regional Director, Gambia Immigration Department in Lower River Region (LRR).
According to Mr Jobe, this is quite insensitive to their family especially when they all come from the same region as the-adversely-mentioned perpetrator. “Kanyi is a confessed killer for Jammeh who admitted publicly to have participated in the killing of our brother Baba Jobe,” the disgruntled brother said, sounding frustrated that instead of being punished for these crimes, the government has gone ahead to reward many of these perpetrators with positions in government.
However, Immigration PRO has denied that Kanyi is in active service, saying deputy head of in LRR is Jatta.
Madam Persson also said this is not actually the case. “Given the sensitivity of the cases as we all saw and heard from the testimonies, no court in the judiciary would touch these cases for prosecution as they are considered ‘crimes against humanity’ in nature. The Minister of Justice has made a strict policy decision to hand these pieces of evidence to the special prosecutor as received from the TRRC,” she explained.
The Point has also received reports that some of the Jungler-members of the Armed Forces have been receiving their full salary benefits while awaiting such prosecutions, while one is even reported to be resident at the officers’ quarters of a particular military barracks. The Point also learned that those Junglers who were at-large since 2017, including Sana Manjang, Nfansu Jambang frequently enter The Gambia through unofficial borders, while Bora Colley, the army general who was reportedly arrested by the military police, purportedly surrendered himself on serious medical grounds after spending two months in the country receiving treatment.
We could not independently verify these reports as the Army public relations office did not respond to our inquiry sent to their official line for a second week today.
“We are already recruiting the special prosecutor, who may, most likely, be a non-Gambian,” Ida Persson explained. We have to move fast as the trial stage of this transitional justice is about the perpetrators who would become witnesses. So, a decision has been reached to release them after a long time in state custody without formal charges. Now, a new decision has been made to fast-track this recruitment of a special prosecutor to begin the work of further investigations and trial,” she added.
Ida Perrson has said that as of May 2024, MoJ has been informed that 16 out of the 263 recommendations have been fully implemented. 192 of the 263 recommendations are ongoing, and it's only 55 recommendations that have not commenced yet.
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