Facts
The Gambia was under the control of Yahya Jammeh from 1994 to 2016. For more than two decades, human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killing, sexual violence and arbitrary detention were widespread. In July 2005, Jammeh’s officials allegedly detained over 50 west African migrants and summarily executed them. To commit those crimes, then-President Jammeh relied on the paramilitary armed group the Junglers, which was considered one of the most brutal enforcement arms of Jammeh’s regime.
Bai L. was a member of the paramilitary Junglers death squad. According to his conviction, he was a driver for the Junglers from December 2003 until December 2006.
In that context, Bai L. is presumed to have been involved in three killing missions. In late December 2003, the paramilitary unit allegedly received an order to kill lawyer Ousman Sillah in Banjul, the Gambia. In his capacity as driver, he is suspected of having driven other Junglers to the location where the crime took place. There, a member of the Junglers allegedly fired several shots at the lawyer, who survived the attack. A year later, the Junglers’ patrol team killed prominent Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, who was critical of the government. The Junglers, with the alleged participation of Bai L., stopped the journalist’s car on a road in Kanifing. Subsequently, two members of the patrol team killed him by firing several shots, while Bai L. was alleged to have transported one of the shooters in his vehicle. In 2006, members of the paramilitary unit shot and killed Dawda Nyassi, a suspected opponent of the Gambian president near the Banjul airport. As before, Bai L. presumably transported the other perpetrators to the location of the shooting.
In 2013-2014, Bai L. gave interviews to Gambian journalists, providing details on these murders.
Procedure
On 16 March 2021, Bai L. was arrested in Hanover by the federal criminal police and the state police forces under suspicion of crimes against humanity and his apartment was searched. Subsequently, in execution of an arrest warrant, Bai L. was placed in detention.
In March 2022, Bai L. was indicted for crimes against humanity based on the attempted murder of lawyer Ousman Sillah in 2003, as well as the murders of journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004 and of perceived political opponent Dawda Nyassi in 2006. This indictment was approved by the Higher Regional Court of Celle, where Bai L.’s trial opened on 25 April 2022.
During the trial, several witnesses were heard by the Court, including two eyewitnesses to one of the crime scenes and three joint-plaintiffs: the son of the journalist assassinated, a former employee of said journalist’s newspaper and one of the sons of Dawda Nyassi. One of the daughters of Ousman Sillah was also able to testify in late 2022. Other witnesses included German investigators, a German expert on The Gambia’s history, the accused’s former trainer in the army who testified that Bai L. was a Jungler, the German asylum judge who interviewed Bai L. and to whom he described his role in the Hydara killing and other acquaintances of Bai L. who placed him as a member of the Junglers.
Further witnesses were heard, called either by the defense or by the civil parties. The federal prosecutor’s closing arguments took place on 16 November 2023, while the joint-plaintiffs made their closing arguments on 17 November 2023. The defense made its closing argument by the end of November 2023.
On 30 November 2023, the Court ruled that Bai L. was guilty of murders and attempted murders as crimes against humanity for the killing of Deyda Hydara and Dawda Nyassi and for the attack against Ousman Sillah. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.