The embattled former Minster is appealing his conviction after a criminal trial in 2024 convicted him on multiple charges of Intentional homicide, torture, false imprisonment, deprivation of liberty, acts of torture and killing of a perceived political opponent in 2000 as crimes against humanity.
This week, the appeals chamber of the federal criminal court in Bellinzona is hearing closing arguments from lawyers on all sides of the case, with the prosecution presenting her oral arguments first.
According to prosecutions, Ousman Sonko, as a former high-ranking army member and active Inspector General of Police (IGP) cum Minister of Interior, with an advisory function in the National Security Council was very familiar with the procedures of the army, the security forces, and the prison services…
“In this role, he was also broadly networked in a political environment at that time and had direct access to the leadership ranks of the army, the intelligence service, and the most important ministries,” the prosecution told the court about the accused.
Prosecutors accuse Sonko of proving police officers for the investigative panels [probing military coup of 2006], thereby enabling a division-of-labor. He also reportedly coordinated collaboration of various security agencies in the investigative committee, including the Junglers.
The Office of the Attorney General in Switzerlan spent seven years investigating and gathering evidence between The Gambia and Switzerland in preparation for this trial. Their work has been further enabled by the TRRC, whose findings align greatly with the criminal chamber of the Swiss Federal Court here in Bellinzona, in handing down a conviction for Ousman Sonko in 2024.
“The accused was positioned and ran the investigation committee,” prosecutors told the appeals chamber this week, following the appeal of Sonko’s lawyer against the verdict. “They [Junglers, the NIA, the Police and Sonko] would have interacted with each other in a way that was perceptible from the outside and decided who was to be interrogated and who was to be released from custody.”
“Simple questions were followed by endless repetitions upon repetitions, references to persons and files that were supposed to support his standpoint. It did not appear as if the defendant had really engaged with the considerations of the lower court, or wanted to engage…
“In front of the present court, he presented himself as instructive and pedantic. He cited the Gambian constitution, Gambian laws, Gambian judgments, and other documents from Gambia from the police and the TRRC, but only in places where he thought it could strengthen his position. He always emphasized that he was not a lawyer,” the court heard about him.
In contrast, prosecutors say Sonko mostly criticized in the same breath the same legal bases, judgments, and documents of the authorities in Gambia. His lawyer, Phillipe Currat asked the court to dismiss testimonies of witnesses presented by the defence when he went ahead and requested for one for himself, a Jungler named Ismaila Jammeh.
Ismaila Jammeh
“The same applies to the statements made by Ismailia JAMMEH before the Court of Appeal,” prosecutors said, revealing to the court that Ismaila JAMMEH was an early member of the Jungers and who was involved in numerous, still-unresolved crimes of the JAMMEH regime.
“In the TRRC reports, he is associated with the killing of NIA Director Daba MARENAH and four other coup suspects who were killed extrajudicially. Furthermore, he is associated with torture and killings of other individuals,” the prosecutorsstated, arguing that Ismailia JAMMEH thus clearly belongs to “the same state perpetrator collective” as the accused, who stand accused of attacking the civilian population during Yahya JAMMEH’s rule.
Therefore, in view of the many other pieces of evidence, Jammeh’s statements are of “completely subordinate reliability and credibility; they simply cannot be relied upon.”
The trial chamber had found that Sonko “participated actively” in the panel by asking questions and in the context of the release of detainees; and was substantially involved in the execution of the act.
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