According to Trial International, the witness explained that he had been subjected to heinous crimes and humiliation that he never thought a man could do to another man.
Ousman Sonko contested all the charges, on the events of 2006, brought against him in relation to this third plaintiff.
After having confirmed the statement he made during the course of the investigation – and according to his own words – the plaintiff explained that he had been kidnapped in March 2006 from the Parliament. Taken to the NIA premises on several occasions, he had been questioned on his suspected role in the alleged coup attempt and answered that he did not know anything about it. A written statement had been prepared for him to sign and he was stabbed as he was refusing to do so.
He was submitted on other occasions to acts of torture. As a result, he suffered from wounds on different parts of his body. He explained that he had been subjected to heinous crimes and humiliation that he never thought a man could do to another one. He was eventually acquitted.
Despite his acquittal, he suffered notable physical and psychological consequences from the acts of torture he had endured which ever since had affected his daily life.
With regards to the Gambian context, he explained that the political situation in 2006 was disastrous.
Another witness explained in her statement that she was arrested on 24 March 2006 and detained, then brought to the premises of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). She found herself in a room where many people – amongst them Ousman Sonko and the former vice-director of the NIA – were sitting. She was interrogated on the attempted coup that was suspected to have taken place. During her presence at the NIA, she was subjected to intense violence, raped, humiliated and tortured. Following these horrific events, she was put in jail.
She was detained several weeks before being brought – along with other people – again to the NIA where she saw Ousman Sonko. Only afterwards had she been released.
In October the same year, she was arrested again at her home and again put in prison, where she stayed in solitary confinement before being brought to the NIA once more. There, she was interrogated about the involvement of other persons in the coup. Eventually, she was released.
The plaintiff mentioned the physical and mental impacts these acts had had on her since then.
She recounted to the Swiss court how the Gambian judicial system was an accomplice to the government, where judges answered to the orders of the President.
