“However, Almamo was not intended as the president instructed for his arrest,” he added. This came in the wake of a protracted question-and-answer session in the past 48 hours in Bellinzona, in the appeals hearing of involving himself as former Interior Minister.
Thursday’s session focused on his examination as a witness in the killing of Almamo Manneh in January 2000 coup plot, in which he was purported to be the brain in its foil.
“To suggest he [Almamo Manneh] was killed because he was a political opponent of Yahya Jammeh is incorrect,” Sonko reiterated for the umpteenth time to the court of appeals. He said that up to year 2000, Almamo was very close to President Jammeh, and he would not have considered him an enemy of the state.
Thus, when he secretly recorded the audio – under circumstances he refused to explain to the court citing an oath of secrecy he took – and then presented it to Yahya Jammeh, it became quite a disappointment to the president, as Almamo was “a well-loved solder” at the time.
Despite the prosecution’s argument that Sonko lured Almamo to Sting Corner to be killed, instead of incapacitating him during the arrest like the case with Landing Sanneh who was the State Guards commander at the time, Sonko maintained that his act was done in accordance with laws of the Gambia.
This line of questioning led to the part where he was examined on his loyalties and roles in the said killing. He refused to answer those questions on the bases of official secrets act. When asked to pinpoint Sting Corner on a map presented to him, he remained mute, just as he was when presented and asked to read an article of the announcement of the said incident back in 2000.
He was also quizzed on the discrepancy in his statement on the matter, and the statement released by the Ministry of the Interior regarding the incident.
In the said statement, Manneh was reportedly intercepted on the way to Fajara and Yundum military barracks for the said operation. Also, it was claimed that the two have been under investigations for months prior to the arrest orders against them. But Sonko remained mute, citing official Secrets Act, and his oath as a soldier.
He maintained the same silence when put to him that the TRRC found that he, Yahya Jammeh, Musa Jammeh, Ismaila Jammeh and other soldiers were responsible for the killing of Almamo Manneh. At one point, he said all he could tell the court was that the arrests were “proportionate” with the crimes of attempting a coup against a legitimate government.
Then came the lawyer, Mullis, who asked him when he joined the army in 1988, to whom did he swore loyalty to?
Sonko said to the government of Dawda K. Jawara at the time. Again, he was confronted whether he received any medal or recognition for his role in toppling the same government he swore to be loyal to. He answered yes to that, thus ending the session for the day.
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