By Mustapha K Darboe with New Narratives
Bellinzona, Switzerland- Two Gambian prison officers—Lamin Sanneh and Abdou Jammeh—testified to torture, and poor food and hygiene conditions at Gambia’s central prison— Mile 2—in the crimes against humanity trial of Gambia’s former Interior Minister Ousman Sonko in the Swiss city of Bellinzona.
Sonko served as 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.
Arrested in January 2017, the Swiss Attorney General’s 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’s former dictator Jammeh.
The Swiss prosecutors are trying to prove Sonko’s responsibility for torture through his participation in various investigation panels as inspector general or for ordering or abetting abuse as interior minister.
Previous testimonies before the court alleged that Sonko served on the investigation panel following the 2006 foiled coup, which oversaw the torture and interrogation of witnesses by Junglers–a paramilitary hit squad operating under the orders of Jammeh.
Today, the trial’s fifth witness, Lamin Sanneh, a prison officer, told the 3-member panel of judges that in 2012 torture was widespread in Mile 2, the country’s central prison Jammeh popularly called his “five-star” hotel.
