Switzerland charges Gambia’s ex-minister with crimes against humanity

Switzerland’s attorney general has filed an indictment against a former interior minister of Gambia for crimes against humanity committed under ex-strongman leader Yahya Jammeh between 2000 and 2016, specifically for his alleged role in years of repression by the West African country’s security forces against opponents of the long-time dictator.

Ousman Sonko, who was Gambia’s interior minister from 2006 to 2016, is accused of having supported, participated in, and failed to prevent “systematic and generalized attacks” as part of a repressive campaign by security forces against Jammeh’s opponents, the Office of the Attorney General said on Tuesday April 18.

Sonko was removed from his government position in September 2016, left Gambia for Europe where he applied for asylum in Switzerland in November 2016 and was arrested two months later. The case, which has been under investigation for more than six years, is set to be heard by Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court at an unspecified date.

Jammeh, who seized control in a 1994 coup, lost the Gambia’s 2016 presidential election but refused to concede defeat to Adama Barrow. The ex-strongman eventually fled to Equatorial Guinea amid threats of a regional military intervention to force him from power. Barrow’s government in 2022 announced that it was setting up a special prosecutor’s office to investigate severe human rights violations and potentially charge Jammeh. The investigation came in response to a complaint from the Geneva-based NGO TRIAL International, initially for torture, which was then requalified as crimes against humanity.

TRIAL International is an NGO fighting impunity for international crimes, supporting victims in their quest for justice, including by providing legal assistance to victims, litigating cases, developing local capacity, and pushing the human rights agenda forward.

“We are very satisfied that this is going ahead,” said Philip Grant, TRIAL’s executive director. “We hope this will generate momentum and that the trial will put pressure on Equatorial Guinea to eventually extradite Jammeh,” Grant added. He also noted that Sonko would be the highest political figure ever to be brought to trial in Europe under the principle of ‘universal jurisdiction’ that can be invoked, drawing on the Geneva Conventions, whenever serious war crimes are committed.