\n The Gambia is suspending state employees accused of rights violations during ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh's regime, including senior members of the country's security forces, a justice ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The move marks a significant step forward in the country's transitional justice process.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ministry has written to the employers of those concerned to notify them of their suspension, spokesman Kimbeng Tah told AFP Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n It expects confirmation of the suspensions \"in the coming days,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The commander of the police force's Anti-Crime Unit, Gorgui Mboob, and the Drug Law Enforcement Agency's director of operations, Ebrima Jim Drammeh, are among those named.\n<\/p>\n
\n A truth commission that investigated alleged crimes committed by the state under the now-exiled leader's 22-year rule accused dozens of current and former state personnel of a litany of abuses.\n<\/p>\n
\n Members of the police, the army, the intelligence services and the prison services were among those accused of offences including torture, sexual violence and extrajudicial killings.\n<\/p>\n
\n The move is one of the first concrete actions taken to implement the truth commission's recommendations.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Victims groups want Jammeh -\n<\/p>\n
\n Reed Brody, a lawyer with the International Commission of Jurists who works with Jammeh's victims, welcomed the news.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It's a tangible, concrete step by the government,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n On May 25, the government accepted all but two of the 265 recommendations made in the commission's final report, tabled late last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Those included recommendations to prosecute Jammeh himself for a swathe of crimes, from raping a beauty queen to using death squads.\n<\/p>\n
\n He is also accused of ordering the murder of the AFP journalist Deyda Hydara and administering bogus HIV \"treatment\" programmes.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jammeh is living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, which has no extradition treaty with The Gambia.\n<\/p>\n
\n Victims' groups have urged authorities to do more to extradite the ex-president for prosecution.\n<\/p>\n
\n Government spokesman Ebrima Sankareh last week told AFP that authorities had hired foreign and Gambian lawyers to outline next steps for a trial, which could begin by the end of the year.\n<\/p>\n
\n The government has already said it will prosecute all 70 alleged perpetrators named in the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission's twice-delayed report.\n<\/p>\n
\n That includes former vice president Isatou Njie-Saidy and members of the so-called \"Junglers\" hit squad.\n<\/p>\n
\n The authorities have also begun working on a reparations bill.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jammeh was forced into exile in early 2017 after his shock electoral defeat to current President Adama Barrow and a six-week crisis that led to military intervention by other West African states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Gambia is suspending state employees accused of rights violations during ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh's regime, including senior members of the country's security forces, a justice ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. The move marks a significant step forward in the country's transitional justice process. The ministry has written to the employers of those concerned to notify them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-102156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n