{"id":51129,"date":"2024-01-12T18:47:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T18:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=51129"},"modified":"2024-01-12T15:49:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T15:49:14","slug":"second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial","title":{"rendered":"Second rape victim testifies against Sonko in Swiss trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Bellinzona, Switzerland\u2014On Thursday, *Fatou Ceesay, a rape victim and plaintiff, took the stand in the crimes against humanity trial against Gambia\u2019s former interior minister Ousman Sonko in the Swiss city of Bellinzona.<\/b><\/p>\n

Sonko was the police chief under ex-president Yahya Jammeh from 2005 to 2006. In the latter part of 2006, he was appointed minister of interior, a position he held from November 2006 to February 2012 and from May 2012 to September 2016.<\/p>\n

The Swiss Attorney General\u2019s office, along with 10 plaintiffs from Gambia, is accusing Sonko of torture, murder, false imprisonment, rape, and deprivation of liberty, allegedly perpetrated against Gambians during the 22-year rule of Gambia\u2019s former dictator Jammeh.<\/p>\n

*Ceesay, who requested not to use her real name, was accused of being involved in a foiled coup led by the army chief of defense staff Col. Ndure Cham. In the aftermath of the coup, several people\u2014military officers and civilians\u2014were rounded up, including Ceesay, who was a civilian.<\/p>\n

A panel was established and composed of various heads of security institutions. Sonko allegedly sat on it, Ceesay testified. Several investigations, including one by the country\u2019s Truth Commission, established that such panels are confession exercises accompanied by the beating of Junglers, a paramilitary hit squad operating on the orders of Jammeh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took me to a room. They removed my glasses, put a plastic bag over my head, and started beating me from all directions. That went on for a long time. They do this until you can\u2019t breathe,\u201d said Ceesay. After the beating, she was allegedly raped by one of the Junglers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of them came in and turned off the light,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole room was dark. I thought I was going to be beaten again. I saw a Jungler with a mask. He jumped on me, opened my legs and started molesting me. He raped me,\u201d said Ceesay.<\/p>\n

Emotional scars of the incident<\/b><\/p>\n

Ceesay had no means of identifying the person who raped her, and she is not accusing Sonko personally. According to Ceesay, Sonko, who at the time of her arrest was the police chief, formed part of the panel that supervised her torture and maltreatment. (Binta Jamba, the first plaintiff to take the stand against Sonko on Wednesday, is accusing Sonko personally of raping her.).<\/p>\n

Ceesay, who broke down several times, told the court the rape left a lasting physical and emotional scar. \u201cI could not bear to come close to a man. I had to end the relationship with a man I was about to marry,\u201d Ceesay said. \u201cUntil now, I can\u2019t sleep with the lights off. I am afraid of the dark,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ceesay was the second plaintiff to testify in connection to the torture that occurred in the aftermath of the 2006 coup. The first to take the stand was Lt Col Bunja Darboe. \u201cJammeh\u2019s government was a dictatorship. There were a lot of human rights violations. Jammeh had a lot of enablers. Ousman Sonko was one of them,\u201d Darboe told the court on Thursday. The trial continues tomorrow with the testimony of Demba Dem, a torture victim.<\/p>\n

Sonko has contested all allegations against him.<\/p>\n

This was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. Bellinzona, Switzerland\u2014On Thursday, *Fatou Ceesay, a rape victim and plaintiff, took the stand in the crimes against humanity trial against Gambia\u2019s former interior minister Ousman Sonko in the Swiss city of Bellinzona. Sonko was the police chief under ex-president Yahya Jammeh from 2005 to 2006. In the latter part of 2006, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":51128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-51129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nSecond rape victim testifies against Sonko in Swiss trial - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bellinzona, Switzerland\u2014On Thursday, *Fatou Ceesay, a rape victim and plaintiff, took the stand in the crimes against ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Second rape victim testifies against Sonko in Swiss trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bellinzona, Switzerland\u2014On Thursday, *Fatou Ceesay, a rape victim and plaintiff, took the stand in the crimes against ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-12T18:47:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2024\/01\/sm_1705061634.396691.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Second rape victim testifies against Sonko in Swiss trial\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-12T18:47:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial\"},\"wordCount\":562,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2024\/01\/sm_1705061634.396691.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/second-rape-victim-testifies-against-sonko-in-swiss-trial\",\"name\":\"Second rape victim testifies against Sonko in Swiss trial - 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