Gambian authorities on Wednesday the government is ready to prosecute former dictator Yahya Jammeh for a host of crimes including murder, rape, torture, and other alleged crimes committed during his more than two decades at the helm of the small West African country, reported Africa News.
The Gambian Ministry of Justice said its decision to proceed with the trial is based on all but two of the 265 recommendations made by an investigation commission that probed alleged crimes committed by the state under the despotic former leader from July 1994 to January 2017.
As per reports, the 57-year-old former autocrat currently lives in exile in Equatorial Guinea and there is no extradition agreement between the two countries.
The Gambian government said it would prosecute all 70 alleged perpetrators whose names have appeared in the Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission’s (TRRC) report. The list includes former vice president Isatou Njie-Saidy as well as some members of the Jammeh’s hit unit, known as the Junglers.
The TRRC’s findings were delivered after over two years of hearings, during which witnesses gave evidence about torture, death squads, rape and witch hunts often at the hands of the Junglers. The report found that 240 to 250 people died at the hands of the state during Jammeh’s rule.
The release of the white paper ends six months of waiting since the TRRC first released its findings into human rights abuses under Jammeh.
“Impunity is a kind of incentive that we are not prepared to serve perpetrators,” said Gambia’s justice minister, Dawda Jallow.
He said those who contemplate committing gross human rights violations must also aware that society will hold them accountable for their deeds one day or the other.
“For 22 years, Yahya Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron fist,” the Gambian government wrote in a white paper. “During his regime, extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, enforced disappearances, and numerous grievous human rights violations became part and parcel of his military Junta.”
