{"id":51163,"date":"2024-01-13T07:56:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-13T07:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=51163"},"modified":"2024-01-13T07:16:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T07:16:20","slug":"sonko-knew-people-were-being-tortured-on-pretext-of-investigation-anonymous-witness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/sonko-knew-people-were-being-tortured-on-pretext-of-investigation-anonymous-witness","title":{"rendered":"Sonko knew people were being tortured on pretext of investigation – anonymous witness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>An anonymous witness has told a Swiss Court that former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko who is being tried for crimes against humanity and rape among others knew very well that people were being tortured within the frame of an investigation during ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh\u2019s era.<\/b><\/p>\n

Sonko, standing trial, contested all the charges brought against him in relation to this plaintiff.<\/p>\n

According to Trial International, the witness was called to provide his statement and recalled having been arrested on 21 March 2006. During his first night of incarceration, he was brought from the Mile 2 prison to the premises of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). There, members of the Army, of the so-called Junglers, and of the NIA as well as, notably, Ousman Sonko, along with the former Deputy chief of Defense Staff and the head of the police major crime unit set up an investigation panel.<\/p>\n

The plaintiff further explained that the night of his arrest, he was violently interrogated on his suspected participation in the coup. He was afterwards taken several other times to the NIA and submitted to acts of torture. He was also threatened with death, including with weapons. On several occasions, he was forced to sign statements against his will. He still suffers from serious physical and mental after-effects of the acts of torture he had been subjected to.<\/p>\n

He recalled that the panel members \u2013 including Ousman Sonko \u2013 knew very well that people were being tortured within the frame of this investigation. The accused actually saw the plaintiff\u2019s own wounds.<\/p>\n

The plaintiff was only taken before a judge months after his arrest and was convicted \u2013 along with other persons \u2013 to very long prison sentences. He spent nine years in prison in difficult conditions.<\/p>\n

As for the Gambian context at the time, he explained that the country was under extreme dictatorship. People were arrested and imprisoned without being brought before court. Others disappeared. People lived in constant fear.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Gambia. An anonymous witness has told a Swiss Court that former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko who is being tried for crimes against humanity and rape among others knew very well that people were being tortured within the frame of an investigation during ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh\u2019s era. Sonko, standing trial, contested all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":51162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-51163","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":"\nSonko knew people were being tortured on pretext of investigation - anonymous witness - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An anonymous witness has told a Swiss Court that former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko who is being tried for ...\" \/>\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\/sonko-knew-people-were-being-tortured-on-pretext-of-investigation-anonymous-witness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sonko knew people were being tortured on pretext of investigation - 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