(JollofNews) – The office of the attorney general in Switzerland has said it is investigating former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko for possible crimes against humanity.
Mr Sonko, who is seeking asylum in Switzerland, was taken into custody last month after a Geneva-based campaign group, Trial International, filed a criminal complaint accusing him of serious assault, coercion and false imprisonment, relating to his time in office in The Gambia. The attorney general’s office said it “would not rule out a suspicion of crimes against humanity”.
Mr Sonko has not commented on the accusations against him.
The former interior minister was one of the longest-serving members of ex-President Yahya Jammeh’s regime. He was also head of police but fell out with his boss in November last year – a month before the presidential election, which Mr Jammeh lost.
Source: BBC News
Is it just me or does Sonko look like a “dead man walking”. One look at the man I can come up with at a minimum of 10 organic and several more psychiatric problems that may be likely cause of his demur. He is a defeated man and one can clearly see total submission in him. This should serve as a warning that no sins against Allah children goes unpunished. As a Gambian I don’t like the crimes he committed on innocent Gambians, but all punishment is Allah’s. I suggest we let this man come back home so he can help us tell the truth about the last 22 years. The truth will help us heal the deep wounds and ensure we never repeat our failures again.
Dr Sarr, this picture was taken when he was presiding over systematic abuse of Gambians that’s why he look hunted. We don’t need him in the Gambia to know the truth. If there is enough evidence for a prosecution to be brought against him in Swiss then let justice take it’s course. I think us Gambians should take a very good look at our relationship with Allah. We tend to put everything on Allah and absolve ourselves of our responsibilities. Allah has given us intelligence and free will to chart our own path but we talk as if Allah owes us a duty to come and sort our problems. I am not an Islamic scholar but I believe Allah has clearly laid out in the Quran what each individual human being’s responsibilities are to the society in which they live and to humanity. For so long Gambians have accepted everything that a person does is willed by Allah and never make people take responsibility of their actions. This is why Yahya managed to stay for 22 long years. We have been preached by Islamic scholars continually on GRTS that it is Allah who put Yahya there and that the Quran forbids opposing a leader. Am sure they were taking that verse out of context. We should separate religion from politics. The two don’t go together. Dr Sarr you are forgetting that Yahya and his cohort are master manipulators. If Sonko is allowed back in the Gambia I promise you by the end of this transition he will be appointed an ambassador representing Gambia somewhere. He will lie through his teeth to safe his skin and curry favours from President Barrow. How do you think he managed to stay in Yahya’s government for a decade? We will never get an honest answer from him. All the blame, he will shift onto someone else and Gambians will start saying that it was not his fault, it was Allah who willed for all those people to be tortured and killed. So Doctor let’s not even start making such suggestions because if Sonko is allowed back he will escape justice then the rest of them will. We should not be spending Gambian taxpayers money on his flight and security and protracted investigations and legal costs. That money can be spent on the victims of his abuse of office. Let him rot in a foreign prison without seeing his family then he will perhaps understand the impact of his actions on innocent Gambians. Dr Sarr, have you not noticed that not a single one of Yahya’s cohort has shown remorse and apologised to the Gambian people for the part they played in Jammeh’s crimes. All we are hearing are excuses and people trying to justify their actions. We have been taken for a ride for too long it must stop now.
Points taken Buba. Can’t say I disagree with any of your views on the above.
Dr Sarr, I know you and I can have genuine intellectual discourse to get to a converging view. I know your heart is in the right place however we are dealing with some very conning people here and I don’t want them or their sympathisers manipulate and twist your kind gesture for their own selfish gain. Keep up the good work. I thoroughly enjoy your contributions.
Buba,you have hit the nail right on the head,but i beg to differ.The likes of Ousman Sonko,should be brought to book to account for the atrocities committed for the past 22years for he knows a lot and witnessed a lot more.
He will be a good asset in the impending Truth and reconciliation commission.
Kebba I totally agree that he should be brought to book. But I don’t want us Gambians to prevent the Swiss authorities from doing their job. They have more resources at their disposal to make a thorough investigation into his allege crimes. We can use whatever evidence they gather to start our own prosecution. We would have him by the balls then to extract further information from him.