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  This article is part of the daily summaries of the trial of Ousman Sonko, former Interior Minister of The Gambia, which took place between January and March 2024 in Bellinzona, Switzerland. During this time, TRIAL International did its best to capture the most important points discussed during the hearings and cannot be held responsible for any err...

  This article is part of the daily summaries of the trial of Ousman Sonko, former Interior Minister of The Gambia, which took place between January and March 2024 in Bellinzona, Switzerland. During this time, TRIAL International did its best to capture the most important points discussed during the hearings and cannot be held responsible for any err...

Part 3: The sentencing After pleading Ousman Sonko’s responsibility for each and every charge, the prosecutor went on to discuss sentencing. According to Swiss law: The sentence is to be assessed according to the culpability of the offender, which is to be determined on the basis of the severity of the violation or the endangerment of the legal interest...

Part 2: The charges After describing the Gambian context and Ousman Sonko’s knowledge of the generalized and systematic attacks against the civilian population since the early years of Yahya Jammeh’s presidency, the Prosecutor addressed the Court on the accused’s criminal responsibility for the various specific crimes with which he is charged. Murder of a former m...

Part 1: The context After having formally opened the session, the Court rejected the defense’s request to postpone the closing arguments to April 2024 in order for him to get more time to prepare his arguments and review the case in light of very recent case law. The Court then gave the floor to the Prosecutor “A system that must take life must first give justi...

The 23rd of January 2024 marked the termination of all the parties’ hearings. In accordance with the procedural code, the parties were then given the opportunity to request additional evidence. The Prosecutor and the plaintiffs recalled that several persons could still be heard in order to support the existence of a system set up to repress the civilian populat...

(acts of torture, false imprisonment and sexual violence committed as crimes against humanity) As part of an attempted coup d’état in March 2006, Ousman Sonko is being accused, as an accomplice of a group of perpetrators, of having tortured various people, including members of the army, politicians and journalists, of having illegally deprived them of their freedom...

(acts of torture, false imprisonment and sexual violence committed as crimes against humanity) As part of an attempted coup d’état in March 2006, Ousman Sonko is being accused, as an accomplice of a group of perpetrators, of having tortured various people, including members of the army, politicians and journalists, of having illegally deprived them of their...

The trial of Ousman Sonko, former Gambian Minister of Interior, will open on 8 January 2024 before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (FCC). Ousman Sonko is accused of multiple counts of crimes against humanity, allegedly committed between 2000 and 2016, during the rule of former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh. This will be the second trial for crimes against human...