Swiss Court Sentences Ousman Sonko to 20 Years in Jail

The Gambia Ministry of Justice has welcomed the ruling of a Swiss Federal Criminal Court that sentenced its former Interior Minister, Ousman Sonko, to 20 years in prison. In a press statement from the Swiss prosecutor’s office on May 15, it was announced that Sonko was found guilty of multiple counts of intentional homicide, torture, and false imprisonment, each constituting a crime against humanity.

Additionally, Sonko was found complicit in killing and torture. Although he has been in Switzerland since 2016, he was charged and convicted for crimes committed between 1994 and 2016, particularly during his tenure as The Gambia’s Minister of Interior under former dictator Yahya Jammeh.

Under Jammeh, who is now seeking asylum in Equatorial Guinea, Ousman Sonko served in several capacities, including inspector of police and later Interior Minister. In these roles, he is reported to have raped, tortured, and killed; however, charges of rape were dropped.

On May 15, the Gambia Ministry of Justice stated, “Whilst we celebrate this special verdict against Mr. Sonko under the realm of universal jurisdiction, the Ministry of Justice would like to seize this opportunity to call on all Gambians, ECOWAS citizens, and the global community to promote and support all efforts by the Government towards the establishment of the Special Mechanisms for accountability and justice.”

The Ministry also expressed immense gratitude to the Swiss authorities, particularly the Office of the Attorney General and the Swiss Embassy in The Gambia, for their close partnership and mutual legal assistance since the commencement of this process.

After Yahya Jammeh was defeated in a presidential election in 2016, he attempted to overturn the results, but ECOWAS threatened military intervention, leading to his departure. His confidant, Ousman Sonko, fled to Switzerland, where he was granted asylum in 2016. However, a criminal case was filed against him by a non-governmental organization on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity, leading to his arrest in Switzerland on January 26, 2017.

In a press statement from the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland and private claimants against Ousman Sonko on May 15, it was highlighted that Sonko is the most senior state official to be convicted based on universal jurisdiction.

“The Federal Criminal Court’s Criminal Chamber finds that, based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, it is competent to judge—in Switzerland—the crimes committed by the Gambian national Ousman Sonko against the civilian population in The Gambia. Even if some of the charges relate to acts going back to the year 2000, the Criminal Chamber holds that the criminal provisions on crimes against humanity, which entered into force on January 1, 2011, are applicable, given that, then, the intentional homicides (among them two murders), acts of torture, and false imprisonments were not yet past the statute of limitations,” the statement from the prosecutor’s office read.

“The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland accused Ousman Sonko of having committed various serious crimes between 2000 and 2016 in The Gambia, acting in some cases alone but mostly as a member of a group of perpetrators comprising the then-president Yahya Jammeh and leading members of the security forces and prison services of The Gambia.

“As part of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of The Gambia, Ousman Sonko is alleged to have, in his positions initially as a member of the army of The Gambia, then as Inspector General of the Police, and finally as Minister of the Interior, acting in part alone, or in the majority of cases together with the above-mentioned group of perpetrators, deliberately killed, tortured, raped, and unlawfully seriously deprived individuals of their liberty,” the statement further detailed.

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