Switzerland will try a former Gambian minister under ousted dictator Yahya Jammeh for crimes against humanity on Monday in a milestone case where a serial rape victim will testify after a multi-decade wait for justice.
Former interior minister Ousman Sonko will become the highest-ranking official to be tried in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows grave crimes to be prosecuted anywhere, said Swiss campaign group TRIAL International which filed the complaint against him.
Nine Gambian plaintiffs will travel to Switzerland for the scheduled Jan. 8-30 trial at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona in a case rights activists see as ensuring global accountability for the worst atrocities.
Sonko, 54, faces charges including murder, multiple rapes, and torture between 2000-2016 in what is Switzerland’s second trial ever for crimes against humanity. He denies the charges.
“It has been a long period of waiting, waiting with anger, anxiety. But I am very optimistic now and I feel so happy. I am smelling justice,” said Madi Ceesay, a 67-year-old plaintiff who says he was detained and tortured under Sonko.
The defendant’s lawyer Philippe Currat plans to ask the court to abandon the case, citing problems with the investigations and hearings.
“Since the beginning I have been stupefied by the way this file has been handled,” he told Reuters, saying some of the evidence in the indictment was based on “secret” hearings in Gambia and that interviewees had not been informed of their rights.
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