{"id":127079,"date":"2024-01-12T11:07:32","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T10:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=127079"},"modified":"2024-02-12T19:03:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T18:03:51","slug":"ousman-sonko-faces-first-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/127079-ousman-sonko-faces-first-witness.html","title":{"rendered":"Ousman Sonko faces the first witness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The trial of former Gambian Interior minister Ousman Sonko started in Switzerland on January 8. While he denied all allegations against him, the accused had to listen to the first witness, the widow of a soldier he is accused of having killed and who said Sonko raped her over several years after the murder.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

After spending seven years on remand, former Minister of Interior of The Gambia Ousman Sonko is now defending himself against allegations made by 10 plaintiffs (one of whom, Nogoi Njie, passed away in September 2023). The trial began on January 8 in the Federal Court of Bellinzona, a small town in the Italian part of Switzerland. Sonko has contested the indictment \u2013 which includes murder, rape, illegal detentions, and torture allegedly committed between 2000 and 2016 \u2013 in its entirety. But his defence lawyer Philippe Currat\u2019s request to throw out the case on procedural grounds fell flat. Witnesses are now on the stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five of the plaintiffs \u2013 Binta Jamba, Ramzi Diab, Demba Dem, Madi Ceesay and Fatou Camara \u2013 have spent this whole week in the same room with their alleged perpetrator years after the crimes have been committed. \u201cI feel very happy sharing the same room with a perpetrator, somebody who has trampled on my rights. Looking into his eyes or him turning seeing me. That made me really proud and happy because psychologically, that\u2019s sending a positive message,\u201d said Madi Ceesay, a member of parliament, who was a victim of torture at the time he was working as a journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case of Ousman Sonko is being heard under the principle of universal jurisdiction<\/a>. Although the official language of The Gambia is English, the trial is in German, a language neither the plaintiffs nor the accused seem to understand. Disappointingly for the Gambian community, the proceedings would continue in the German language, despite the many efforts made requesting for translation into English. In the beginning of the proceedings, the court announced that important parts of the debates would be translated. But these important parts, it turns out, are announcements of the court\u2019s schedule - mostly breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an interesting atmosphere, where even the judges struggle to pronounce Gambian names correctly. Justice Info\u2019s Gambian correspondent has to rely on interpretation from journalist colleagues to follow the parts of the proceedings that are only in German. And as days go by, the number of Swiss journalists covering the trial keeps going down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2539 days in pre-trial detention<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the first two days, Sonko, dark in complexion and with distinctive lips, wore a blue suit. The 55-year old, who held one of the most senior positions in the small West African country, appeared to have lost weight compared to old photographs of him. His lawyer\u2019s argument has always been that he cannot be tried in Switzerland for crimes against humanity, notably because most of the charges against him were crimes committed before January 1, 2011, which was the year the law on crimes against humanity was adopted in Swiss law. That should exclude, according to the defence, \u201call contents\u201d relating to Binta Jamba, Ramzi Diab, Demba Dem, Madi Ceesay, Musa Saidykhan and Bunja Darboe, given crimes pertaining to them were committed before January 1, 2011. Currat further argued that his client could not be tried for torture because it has not been domesticated in Swiss law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOusman Sonko has now been in custody for 2539 days and the question of whether the Swiss authorities have jurisdiction to prosecute him for the offences of which he is accused has still not been resolved,\u201d the defence lawyer stressed during his submission. The court rejected all the preliminary pleas made by the defence, but it decided to provide clarity on the issue of jurisdiction only at the end of the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSwiss is not qualified to judge human rights\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet me emphasise that throughout my career, in all positions I have held, I have always remained loyal to my country, which I have always served to the utmost of my conscience. During all these years of investigation and until an indictment was brought before your Tribunal, the office of the Attorney General of Switzerland prevented the authorities of my country from exercising the consular protection that I had requested,\u201d Sonko said, reading out his opening statement. \u201cIf I had had the opportunity to address the TRRC<\/a> [the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that ran public hearings in The Gambia from 2019 to 2021], I would gladly have done so, because it is essential that the Gambian people understand the situation that has prevailed in the country in the past. As always and everywhere, the situation is complex and has evolved throughout this period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former minister lambasted the prison conditions he was subjected to in Switzerland, which he claimed resulted in an eye problem. With a disdainful look on his face, he said \u201csome counsels took to the podium to criticise the Gambia and the government at the time. I will urge them to look at themselves in the mirror because I do not think Swiss is qualified or competent to judge anyone on human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that the poor conditions of the prisons in Africa was a result of colonialism, claiming that as Interior Minister, he had worked on improving the prisons system in The Gambia and promoting human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accused\u2019s daughter is in the room<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the far left of the defence team is the accused\u2019s daughter, Olimatou Sonko, currently based in the United Kingdom, who graduated with a law degree about three years ago. \u201cI cannot predict what would happen but we are hoping that at the end of the day he is found innocent and acquitted of all charges,\u201d said the 23-year old lawyer. \u201cBased on the indictment, all I see is like the Junglers<\/a> [a notorious death squad under Yahya Jammeh\u2019s rule in The Gambia, from 1994 to 2016] did this. I\u2019m not seeing anyone, maybe apart from Binta Jamba, saying he [the accused] did this to me. So personally, I just think they are prosecuting the wrong guy. With the victims, obviously I feel sympathy for them and I\u2019m glad that they have their voices heard and everything. I\u2019m actually sorry that they had to go through all of that because no human being deserves to be treated the way they were treated. And I\u2019m a woman, so in relation to Binta Jamba I sympathise with her but at the end of the day that\u2019s my dad and just like any other defendant, I\u2019m gonna believe that he is innocent until he\u2019s proven guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the third day, Binta Jamba faced the three judges as the first witness to take the stand. Jamba is the widow of Almamo Manneh, a State Guard soldier said to be one of the most loyal of Jammeh\u2019s men at the time. Ousman Sonko has been accused of being complicit in the murder of Manneh by luring him into an ambush in 2000. Following the death of her husband, life took a turn for the worse for Jamba. At the victim\u2019s lawyer\u2019s request, the defendant was moved to another room where he could watch Jamba\u2019s testimony. Sonko\u2019s daughter, though, sat through the whole testimony as part of the defence legal team. But when the state prosecutor noticed her making eye contact with the witness, the matter was raised up with the judge and the court ordered that Olimatou Sonko\u2019s seat be pushed behind so they cannot directly see each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Binta Jamba\u2019s harrowing tale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jamba told the court the financial difficulties she and her children were subjected to as a result of her husband\u2019s murder. \u201cAfter Almamo died, the house he was building, he [Sonko] went there and took everything. The cements and concrete. And he built his own house,\" she said. According to her, the accused searched their house after the murder and took the cash they had, some 125,000 Dalasi (the equivalent of 1,700 euros at today\u2019s exchange rate).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she narrated how Sonko turned her into a \u201csex slave\u201d. She said that Sonko repeatedly raped her in the year 2000, 2001 and 2005. The first time he raped her, she told the court, was in her mother\u2019s house. \u201cMy kids were out, everybody were out. He locked the door. His first approach to me was \u2018are you okay?\u2019 because I was shaking. I said \u2018leave me\u2019, because in my religion or my culture when a husband passed away, you have to cover [your head], you\u2019re supposed not to have anything to do for six months. He said \u2018what do you mean?\u2019 He pushed me inside the other room where the bed is. He pulled out his pistol, put it on the side of the bed. The headscarf I have on me, he told me take it off. I was crying,\u201d Jamba recalled. \u201cBut upon all that, I thought that he was about to kill me. He didn't undress fully. He only took out his belt, pulled off his pants. He eventually told me \u2018fuck you, what do you mean what are you supposed to do?\u2019 I was on the bed pushing myself behind. I was crying. He took the gun. He said \u2018if I heard a word, I will kill you\u2019. He forced me to have sex,\u201d an emotional Binta Jamba recounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The witness further testified that Sonko made her abort two pregnancies, an act that is illegal in The Gambia. \"After the abortion, I was seriously sick because of the infection I got from it. I was constantly bleeding, and when I bleed, it smells,\" Jamba testified. \u201cThis man is an\u2026\u201d \u2013 the woman struggled to find her words \u2013 \u201c\u2026he is a very short-tempered person, very arrogant person in term of sex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From January 2001 to January 2002, Ousman Sonko was on a peace mission in Sierra Leone, a small country south of The Gambia where the civil war was being brought to an end by a UN military intervention. He denied the rape allegations, stating that he was not in The Gambia at the time the witness put the encounters. \u201cIn 2001,\u201d Jamba told the court, \u201cit was not frequent. I don\u2019t know about his whereabouts those times. I cannot remember the months but like every three or three and a half months. And eventually during that time I didn\u2019t see him for a whole six months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonko refused to comment on Almamo Manneh\u2019s case, repeatedly responding to the judge\u2019s question with \u201cI am bound by an oath of secrecy.\u201d He however denied the allegations against him.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\"Gambia<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\tGambian trial starts in Switzerland for crimes against humanity\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trial of former Gambian Interior minister Ousman Sonko started in Switzerland on January 8. While he denied all allegations against him, the accused had to listen to the first witness, the widow of a soldier he is accused of having killed and who said Sonko raped her over several years after the murder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":127064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2801],"tags":[3148,2756],"ji_location":[2509,2497],"class_list":["post-127079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-universal-jurisdiction","tag-ousman-sonko-en","tag-sexual-violence","ji_location-gambia","ji_location-switzerland"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOusman Sonko faces the first witness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At the trial (in Switzerland) of former Gambian minister Ousman Sonko, a first witness accused him of killing her husband and claimed that Sonko raped her for several 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