In its judgement of 15 May 2024, the Criminal Chamber finds Ousman SONKO guilty of each of these crimes as a crime against humanity; says it has been proven that Mr Sonko, in complicity with others, had indeed tortured army personnel, politicians and journalists, and falsely imprisoned them in a systematic way over the period he was in authority under Yahya Jammeh.
Ousman SONKO was a close confidant of the former Gambian president Yahya JAMMEH, who led a repressive regime in the Gambia from 1994 to 2016. Under the rule of Yahya JAMMEH, political opponents, journalists and suspected coup plotters, in particular, were routinely tortured, executed extra judicially, arbitrarily arrested and detained and made to disappear.
“The Criminal Chamber finds that it has been established that in January 2000 in Banjul, Ousman SONKO – in complicity with others – intentionally killed a soldier [Almamo Manneh] suspected of a coup,” the verdict says.
It also finds that Ousman SONKO – in complicity with others in Banjul –tortured army personnel, politicians and journalists and falsely imprisoned them in connection with a failed coup attempt in March 2006 and murdered a former member of parliament [Baba Jobe] in October 2011 in Banjul.
“The Federal Criminal Court’s Criminal Chamber finds that, based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, it is competent to judge – in Switzerland – the crimes committed by the Gambian national Ousman SONKO against the civilian population in the Gambia. Even if some of the charges relate to acts going back to the year 2000, the Criminal Chamber holds that the criminal provisions on crimes against humanity, which entered into force on 1 January 2011, are applicable, given that, at that point in time, the intentional homicides (among them two murders), acts of torture and false imprisonments, were not yet past the statute of limitations,” it stated.
The evidence considered by the Criminal Chamber includes the interrogations of Ousman SONKO as well as numerous statements of witnesses, persons providing information and victims, some of whom travelled to Switzerland while others were examined abroad through mutual legal assistance proceedings. In particular, documents from the Gambia and the final report by the Gambian Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) were also consulted.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland indicted Ousman SONKO of having committed various heinous crimes, in the years from 2000 to 2016, in The Gambia, acting in some cases alone, but mostly as a member of a group of perpetrators comprising the then president Yahya JAMMEH and leading members of the security forces and prison services of The Gambia.
“As part of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of The Gambia, Ousman SONKO is alleged to have – in his positions initially as a member of the army of The Gambia, then as Inspector General of the Police and finally as Minister for the Interior – acting in part alone, or in the majority of cases together with the above-mentioned group of perpetrators, deliberately killed, tortured, raped and unlawfully deprived individuals of their liberty in a serious manner,” said the court.
