A lawyer representing 12 Gambian soldiers accused of engaging in mutinous, defamatory, scandalous and unethical acts against the government of President Adama Barrow has told a military court martial that one of his clients was tortured by investigators
Sherrif Kumba Jobe, said Lieutenant Abdoulie Jarju was subjected to severe beating while he was detained at the feared State Intelligence Services (SIS), formerly the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
He was arrested together with Captain Yaya Biray Jammeh, Lieutenant Yaya Jammeh, Sergeant Babucarr Sanneh, Sergeant Malick Bojang, Corporal Sulayman Sanyang, Couple Lamin Gibba, Couple Ebrima Jallow, Lance Couple Sambujang Bojang, Lance Couple Aba Badjie, Private Mbemba Camara and Private Alieu Sanneh in July this year for using WhatsApp to post audio recordings critical of the government.
After their arrest, the men were held in communicado and without access to lawyers until last month when they were arraigned before a military court martial at country’s first infantry battalion in Yundum, some 27 kilometer from the capital, Banjul.
According to Lawyer Jobe, during the investigation, Lt Jarju was dragged out of his cell before investigators who wanted to take a cautionary statement. He added that his client was later blindfolded and taken to a room where he was subjected to severe beatings.
He added that after seriously torturing his client, a cautionary statement was in violation of the investigation rules obtained from him in the absence of an independent witness.
Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment is prohibited by the constitution and laws of the Gambia and despite promises by the new administration of President Adama Barrow to clean the conduct of the security forces, there were reports that security forces continue tortured, beat, and mistreated persons in custody.
In August this year, another defendant Lance Coporal Sambujang Bojang, spent 11 days in hospital where he was treated for injuries on his feet and hands.
His family said he was subjected to serious beatings while being questioned by officials of the State Intelligence Services (SIS), formerly the National Intelligence Agency ( NIA).
Also in July this year,Lamin Krubally, 34, died in police custody shortly after he was arrested for affray. Police said he died after repeatedly hitting his head against the wall and caused injuries to the head before the officers could get to him. However, his family said he tortured and left to died alone in the cell without any help. The government is yet to probe his cause of death.
May there tortured souls rest in peace. Amen
Rest in Peace??? Tortured souls …
Please show this to me on your Rubik’s cube. Please!! I know you have it on it ..
On the Torture of the Arrested Soldiers, Jollofnews 18th December 2017
The former minister of the Interior, Mai Ahmed Fatty said he was tortured for his political activistism as a MOJA-G militant during the Ex-President Jawara administartion. Please read his interview with journalist Omar Wally, Standard Newspaper.
It uncovers the Ex-President Jawara government’s flagrant abuse of human rights, an issue I have continuously reiterated, especially when the Senegalese forces invaded Gambia at the aftermath of the Kukoi Samba Sanyang rebellion in 1981.
Most civilian Gambians died from the Senegalese forces brutal tortures at the detention camps in Bakau and Banjul while others died from suffocation, poor diets, infections from insect bites, diarrhea, dysentery and all sorts of inhumane treatment under the Invading Senegalese forces commandeered by Ex-President Jawara, BB Darbo, OJ, Saihou Sabally and the PPP nucleus.
Torturing of detainees has always been a norm with our UNCULTURED security forces who have never been brought before the laws for overruling their authority on detainees. That’s how things stood/ and continue to stand to date.
Barrow is also exercising his “constitutional rights” to torture detainees, isn’t it?
Babu Soli
How convenient it is for you to condemn accusations that happened almost 40 years ago but would not even acknowledge nor show any contempt for the abuses, the killings, the rapes and the tortures that happened under Jammeh fairly recently. We can’t expect to be credible to our readership unless we are balanced in our analysis of the political ”shituations” of our homeland. You just have a grudge against everyone bar Jammeh and his evil killers, as your daily praise-singing of their atrocities against our people is getting louder and louder. The bankruptcy of your arguments and partial apportion of blame to only the ppp government and the coalition government is baffling, dishonest and thoughtless.
Very sad story above it want to make your heart pop out. A lot should be regretted of the Sir Dawda government, especially in the horrible inexperience of the unaware and uneducated Kukoi’s bloodshed of ’81, another short-coiled-tailed-snouted-beast on two legs.
Jammeh??? Hah!, I’ve heard him galloping back to his five ‘star pen’. I think he should be loaded up 1000 human rights champion trophies, all on his neck. He is a stick, a sacred book and a meter long prayer beads grabbing dumbo-crap certain Gambians would perfume themselves up from his sewers and kiss his hooves. His hell of hotels should be wide open for him as his final resting place. It is time we perfect our lesson of constitutional treatment of detainees Jammeh taught us. He taught us all the values of human rights to benefit from.
As far as Barrow is concerned, he needs to be cautious to learn from the past and not bury citizens around the country in unmarked graves and also needs to keep himself fit. He needs a mini gym if he can’t find a suitable jogging lane.
To write the horrible experience of ……
No, Natty Dread. I have never condoned killings, rapes and tortures under President Jammeh neither would I condemn them (at the moment). We differ in outlook and judgement.
I have on several occasions told you and readers that, I am not condemning Jammeh for anything that is being looked into by our COURTS and COMMISSIONS of INQUIRY. I have categorically affirmed that unless the verdicts of our jurisdictional sectors are not heard, there is no reason to indict someone for accusations filed by third parties. What about if he comes clean and exonerated? If he fails to, then one should make a sound democratic analysis.
As for the atrocities and wrong-doings of the Jawara administration, I lived blood, flesh and spirit with them. I really get irritated when I see/listen to/hear people exemplifying the Jawara administration simply because it was the first independence administration. But did we achieve our expectations under that administration? An administration that kept us in abject poverty for 31 years, under-educated us, surged patronage, influence-peddling, tribalism, nepotism, corruption, womanizing, curbing of civic and political rights………
We have to read history and keep historic relics alive. That’s the only way we can learn to improve our present and future. Here the Dutch history materials deliberately sideline Dutch barbaric activities on the Black people in South Africa. But the South African Blacks should always try to revive those acts by the Dutch colonizers.
Natty and Ex-President Jawara admirers are doing exactly the same. Trying to bury the wrong-doings of the Jawara administration right under their feet, while we still have some perpetrators in the present administration.
There is nothing wrong keeping your zeal to incarcerate President Jammeh; that’s your right. But there isn’t anything wrong in reviving the “good” or bad activities of the Jawara administration.
Forget about time factor in relating historic events. 40 years ago, I lived and experienced atrocities in my own country; over 70 years the Jews are still chasing the Nazis, over two centuries the Black Americans are still reviving life in the plantations, about 100 years the South Africans still cry about Dutch abuses/excesses, the Mexicans about Spanish atrocities, the Australian Aborigines about the White Settler abuses…….
Babu, you have always demonstrated to be emphatic and well embracing of the Dutch job you secured anyway, to be a bit intrusive as we tend to be in each others lives at times. I can bet you dare not attempt to benefit your students with knowledge of such history lest they label you an inciter of hate, disruptor of peaceful coexistence, and sack you from your job, despite the maturity of the Dutch democracy. I’ve noticed you’ll never come forth when abuse of, or creepy and vitriolic headlines about migrants and immigration are featured in forums, because maybe you’ve got a chunk of Dutch cheese stuck in your throat. Take that fact with a smile bro … No need to empty your clips please …
The truth is, you’ve distorted your sketch of the history of Western colonisations and their relevance to Gambia’s various post colonial republics. Nothing could be true in your writings except the facts in it that reveals your love of a regime of terror, that you were perhaps secretly part of or very close to its atrocities. Indeed, Gambians shouldn’t chase anyone but Jammeh, like in what you claim to be; the Jews ‘chasing’ Nazis for 70years. By the same token, African Americans are much more disheartened today, by the emergence of bloody and ruthless dictators in Africa like Jammeh, than the cane, cotton and tobacco plantations that were been grown and harvested with the blood, sweat and tears of their ancestors. Come on…you, if you can cut off a bit of the irrelevance in your stories … you should also be able to understand that some followers like myself are non partisan but holding reasonably profound and diverse perspectives of Gambia’s and generally Africa’s perpetuation of bad leaderships; the civilian governments are commonly awash with corruption, influence peddling, violation of citizens’ rights etc., and when military take over by illegal coups, equally they are corrupt, peddle influence, tear down the constitution and trample on citizens’ rights, tear down the knits of society apart, create unmarked cemeteries, build a few monuments with their names or families’ names enclaved on them, and then they would milk the national cow, take some of the milk home, take some to their family and friends’, and throw away the rest of the milk in the dirt. Teach it to your pupil there in the Netherland as part of the values of your profession!
Bro Babs, your arguments are so baseless they don’t even worth to be seen as a cat set among pigeons.
Babu, until you demonstrate consistency in your positions on both the Jawara and Jammeh administrations, you will stand exposed as a man who tries to defend a brutal, merciless, lawless and corrupt tyrant, who made no secret of his preparedness to kill and always rejoices at sending people to that hell hole he proudly calls, his 5 star hotel.
You claim that you will not condemn Jammeh until the courts and commissions have finished their work and found him culpable or guilty, but you done not hesitate to condemn Jawara for all the “crimes” committed under his watch.
Haven’t you heard about the verdict of the ECOWAS Court, in relation to journalist Ceesay? Haven’t you heard the verdict of the same court in relation to Chief Ebrima Manneh? Didn’t you hear about the dead Ghanaians and Jammeh’s compensation deal with the Ghana Government, thus accepting culpability and responsibility?
May I ask you Babu: which court and commission investigated Jawara and found him guilty or culpable in all that you are accusing him? Which witness sat before these courts or commissions and swore that they were directed by President Jawara to do what they were supposed to have done?
And you want to be taken seriously by this forum?
Babu Soli
Yes you have condoned killings of Solo Sandeng and the alleged coup plotters, those you said deserved to die for opposing a tyrant. If you lived and experienced atrocities during Jawara’s era, then you must also lived and experienced worst atrocities during Jammeh’s misrule unless you are indifferent to the sufferings of those people, people you deemed your enemies. If you lived and experienced corruption during Jawara’s era, then you must also experienced worst corruption under Jammeh. Jawara in power for 31 years never owned 149 landed properties, 88 Bank accounts, 14 companies and 30 million Dollar mansion in America. Yes we didn’t achieved all our expectations under Jawara but we atleast live in poverty without fear of arbitrary arrests and detentions, forced disappearances and many, many more atrocities prevalent during Jammeh’s misrule. I am no fan of Jawara’s administration because i was too young to remember many things but one thing i do remembered is that impunity is not a daily occurrence.
Natty Dread/Bourne, Jollofnews 19th December 2017
My participatory commitment in immigration matters has almost come to an end now. I vehemently played my role in the 80s, 90s and early 2000 to settle down now and give away to the younger generation here. My children are deeply involved in canvassing for migrants’ rights, especially my elder daughter, something they have inherited from me. I represented this country on the European Migrants’ Forum in Brussels for 5 years(1990-95) and worked for the rights of the migrants and displaced people at all institutional levels in enacting common European policies on migration. Through those efforts with other bolder migrant individuals and associations, the Dutch government became one of the most lenient countries on migrantion issues. I think it’s time I give way to the more energetic core of the younger breed of migrants/displaced people to continue.
Where have you ever read a baseless argument, Bourne? All arguments have a base. From those bases we always develop our counter arguments and opinions and try to debase the contents therein. So all my arguments are fruitful, until you prove them worthless. If you can!
Gambians have a lot of people to chase, except when they want to ignore the facts and occurences that hindered our quest for development/progress in the past. Or they might have not been told what went wrong in the past. Maybe in your case, I presume.
Natty, I don’t go down well with people who take the laws into their own hands. Solo Sandeng did. And I presume you did say that Haruna Jatta who was shot dead in cold blood in Kanilai by the Barrow invited Senegalese invading forces, might have done the same…..demonstrating without permission….infringing the laws as affirmed by ertswhile ex Minister Mai Fatty.
There is a Mandinka saying: “What can a man with one wife attest in the case of a man with two wives?” Very little, indeed! Natty, I know why you say very little about the Jawara regime. You were very little, then. You are right to be silent about something you have no knowledge of.
The sheer policy of keeping a population in abject poverty while a few are flaring with the collective resources of all is UNDEMOCRATIC, CRIMINAL, CORRUPT and a TREASONABLE punishment.
The sensation of abject poverty carries all its collateral negative consequences; FEAR, ILLITERACY, UNDER-EDUCATION, UNCURABLE ILLNESSES, NEPOTISM, INFLUENCE PEDDLING, SELFISHNESS, LIES, PATRONAGE, LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES…..I lived all these vices in the Jawara administration! And many my compatriots who were forced to flee. So, where do the differences between Jawara and Jammeh lie? Didn’t Jammeh do more than him?
Quotes @ Babu Soli:
1. “Natty, I don’t go down well with people who take the laws into their own hands.”
2. “I lived all these vices in the Jawara administration! And many my compatriots who were forced to flee.”
This is yet another proof of your inconsistency. What you are saying in 1. is that Solo Sandeng “took the law into his own hands”, and so the Jammeh Government bears no blame for his fate, despite exceeding the limits of the law.
However, in quotation 2., you are insinuating that the Jawara Government bears blame for those of your compatriots who were forced to flee into exile.
Well, as far as I know, the only people who fled from Jawara were MOJA-G (banned organisation) activists and Kukoi Samba Sanyang (1981 rebel leader) accomplices. Both groups stand accused of “taking the law into their own hands”, by your definition.
So singling out Jawara for blame, whilst sparing Yaya Jammeh for the same “crime” of dealing with those who “took the law into their own hands”, is inconsistent and a clear demonstration of your INCONSISTENCY.
You have to deal with this inconsistency, if you want to be taken seriously.
@Babu Soli: “The sheer policy of keeping a population in abject poverty while a few are flaring with the collective resources of all is UNDEMOCRATIC, CRIMINAL, CORRUPT and a TREASONABLE punishment.”
Isn’t this another example of your inconsistency? When has poverty left Gambia? Haven’t you seen the array of super expensive vehicles that Yaya Jammeh assembed at the State Houses in Banjul and Bakau? Haven’t you seen the lavish lifestyle he lived at State House; even erecting an D80M tent? Do you need glasees to see the 3 aircrafts he bought with our resources for his, and his family’s use? What about the millions, if not billions of Dalasis, squandered in large and small cash giveaways, since 1994?
Of course, there was corrupton, patronage, nepotism, selfishness and extravagance during the Jawara era, but to equate that with what we saw under Jammeh is to stretch the limits of all sanity, because that borders on the peripheries of an insane mind. Serious Babu, you got to stop this joke.
Babu, you’re right; age can come with its toll on our lives in ways that can compel us relieve ourselves from some of our invaluable activities of interest in life. However, that doesn’t mean we have to retire too, our altruistic and upstanding mindsets or in other words, to let disintegrate the latter in our frames of minds down the way of our aging lives.
I think Bax has pertinently detailed out the proof of your complicatedly woven art of inconsistence demonstrated over time.
Babu Soli
I can’t agree more with you Brother Bax and Brother Bourne. It is incredible to see how far Babu Soli is willing to go, to try and twist the truth into untruth, rumour into a credible story, logic into illogical and sense into senseless in his defence of Yahya Jammeh, his APRC party and his bunch of assassins. What is stopping Babu Soli from acknowledging a single wrongdoing by Jammeh and his cahoots? Is that the level of Babu’s political maturity of blind conformism and star worshiping of a political leader or is he just one of those African educated elites whose philosophical and moral bankruptcy made it possible for our continent to lag behind any other due to their blind obedience in helping entrench dictatorial and despotic systems of governance. One not wondered why African despots reined unhindered for many years. Our country is paying a heavy price for the same moral bankruptcy that inflicted our educated elites by colluding, conniving and entrenching an unconstitutional method of governance. Civil servants carrying out illegal orders by illegal means, while our constitution being violated by all those who swore to protect and defend by all means necessary. It is with great sadness that rational thought and ideas take a back seat for Babu when it comes to Jammeh. 149 Landed properties, 88 Bank Accounts, 14 Companies, 30 Million Dollar mansion in USA, the top of the range motor vehicles, 3 planes. What is wrong with you brother BABU SOLI? What happened to honesty? A president of an impoverished nation as ours with such wealth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!