2024-01-09 09:36:54
A Swiss court is due to decide on Tuesday whether the prosecution of crimes against humanity can be retroactive, a key element in the trial of a former Gambian minister which opened this week in the Alpine country.
Ousman Sonko, 55, is accused of various counts of crimes against humanity, including repeated torture and repeated rape, which he allegedly committed from 2000 to 2016 during the era of the former iron-fist president Yahya Jammeh, first as a member of the army, then as Inspector General of Police and finally as Minister of the Interior.
He has been appearing before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, in the south-east of Switzerland, since Monday and faces life imprisonment.
His trial is possible because Switzerland made two major changes to its legislation in 2011, by including crimes against humanity – abuses committed as part of a large-scale attack targeting civilians – and recognizing universal jurisdiction to try certain serious crimes under international law.
On the first day of the trial, the defense asked the court to close the entire case “taking into account the extent of the violations of the fundamental rules of procedure”, or at least to dismiss the prosecution concerning the facts which would have been committed before 2011, considering that there could be no “exception to the principle of non-retroactivity”.
However, a large part of the facts appearing in the indictment predate 2011.
This trial is considered “very important in Swiss judicial history” because it is only the second for crimes against humanity, underlined the NGO Trial International, at the origin of the procedure launched against Mr. Sonko.
And this is the first time in Switzerland that the notion of crimes against humanity is addressed at first instance.
In June 2023, the Court of Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court confirmed the 20-year prison sentence of a former Liberian warlord, Alieu Kosiah, and upheld for the first time the accusation of crimes against humanity for acts committed well before 2011.
A court in Gambia?
On Tuesday, the decision concerning the retroactivity of the facts concerning Mr. Sonko is not expected before 1:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT).
The former minister must then speak for the first time in court because he has so far only been able to state his identity.
The trial is expected to last a month, but the verdict is not expected until March.
Ten people joined as civil parties, including eight “direct victims” and the daughter of a person who died in detention, according to Trial. Another died last year, but her heirs took over the case.
Mr. Sonko was arrested on January 26, 2017 in Switzerland where he requested asylum after being dismissed from his ministerial position, which he held for 10 years until September 2016.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Confederation (MPC, office of the attorney general) accuses the Gambian of having committed most of the acts for which he is being prosecuted with the complicity of the former president of this small West African country and “leading members security forces and prison services.
In Gambia, the government announced last year that it was working with the organization of West African States to set up a court responsible for judging crimes committed during the 22-year reign of Yahya Jammeh (1994-end of 2016). ).
But his trial is still very uncertain because no extradition agreement exists between Gambia and Equatorial Guinea, where Mr. Jammeh has lived in exile since 2017.
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