Facts
The Gambia was under the control of President Jammeh from 1994 to 2016. For more than two decades, all opposition was repressed. Torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances were widespread.
After Jammeh’s re-election in September 2006, Ousman Sonko was appointed minister of the interior. He held this position until September 2016, when he was dismissed from office and left The Gambia.
In December 2016, Jammeh refused to recognize the result of the presidential election which saw the victory of the opposition candidate Adama Barrow. The Economic Community of West African States launched a military intervention in The Gambia to enforce the election results, which led to Jammeh stepping down as president in January 2017 and going to exile in Equatorial Guinea.
In 2018, a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) was set up to investigate the crimes committed during the Jammeh regime. In its final report published late 2021, the TRRC recommended the prosecution of Sonko for the role he allegedly played in killings that took place in 2000, 2005 (West African migrants), 2006 and 2012 and acts of torture committed in 2006 and 2016. The TRRC also recommended his prosecution for acts of sexual violence allegedly committed in 2005 and 2015.
Procedure
Alerted of Sonko’s presence on Swiss territory, TRIAL International filed a criminal complaint before the prosecuting authorities in Bern on 25 January 2017. The former Gambian minister was arrested the following day at the immigration center of Lyss (canton of Bern), where he had applied for asylum.
Between 2017 and 2022, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) heard Sonko on multiple occasions. Ten Gambian victims filed individual complaints. All of them, along with dozens of witnesses, including the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, were heard by the OAG. The Swiss authorities travelled on different occasions to The Gambia during their investigation to gather evidence in the framework of mutual judicial cooperation, including to hear witnesses.
In April 2023, the OAG indicted Sonko for crimes against humanity committed in The Gambia and referred the case to the Federal Criminal Court, which set the trial for January 2024.
Sonko’s trial opened on 8 January 2024. He is tried for the killing of a perceived political opponent in 2000, for acts of sexual violence committed between 2000 and 2002 as well as in 2005, for having participated in acts of torture (including physical assault and sexual violence) and deprivation of liberty committed against individuals who were suspected of having plotted a coup in March 2006 and for the murder of a politician in 2011. He is also being tried for having co-perpetrated deprivation of liberty and acts of torture – which led to the death of Solo Sandeng, one of the leading figures of the opposition party (the United Democratic Party) of peaceful demonstrators in 2016, when he was minister of the interior.
On 15 May 2024, Ousman Sonko was convicted of crimes against humanity by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (FCC). He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The FCC found him guilty of the killing of a perceived political opponent in 2000; of torture and illegal detention in connection with a coup plot in March 2006; of the killing of a politician in 2011 and of deprivations of liberty as well as acts of torture – including one killing – of peaceful demonstrators in 2016. The FCC further ordered Mr. Sonko to pay compensation to the plaintiffs, according to the harm suffered. The Court abandoned all sexual offense charges related to 2000 onwards and 2006. Without judging that they did not take place, the Court considered that they were isolated from the context of attack directed against the civilian population and thus could not constitute crimes against humanity.