Five former intelligence agency members were given the death penalty by a Gambian court on Wednesday for the murder of a political activist that occurred under the former dictator Yahya Jammeh.
Yankuba Badjie was found guilty of killing Ebrima Solo Sandeng, a significant member of the opposition United Democratic Party, in 2016, and High Court Justice Kumba Sillah-Camara handed down the sentence against him.
Bodily injury was another charge against Badjie.
Sheikh Omar Jeng, the former head of operations for the organization, along with NIA officers Babucarr Sallah, Lamin Darboe, and Tamba Mansary, were all found guilty on the same allegations and given death sentences by the Banjul court.
During a protest against Jammeh in April 2016, Sandeng was detained. Two days later, after being assaulted and tormented, he passed away in detention.
His passing sparked a political movement that ultimately led to Jammeh’s overthrow after 22 years in power in the small West African country.
Lamin Sanyang, a nurse, and Haruna Susso, another NIA employee, were cleared of all charges related to murder and bodily harm.
Louie Richard Leese Gomez, the former deputy director of the espionage service, was also charged but is no longer alive.
Yusupha Jammeh, another official, had been charged but eventually found not guilty.
Reed Brody, an attorney with the International Commission of Jurists who represents Yahya Jammeh’s victims, stated that “justice is catching up to Yahya Jammeh’s henchmen in the Gambia and around the world and hopefully it will soon catch up to Yahya Jammeh himself.”
The 2017 trial was the only one still going on in the country involving offenses committed while Jammeh was in power.
Yankuba Touray has previously faced justice in The Gambia for the 1995 slaying of finance minister Koro Ceesay. He was found guilty and given the death penalty in July 2021, but he has since appealed.
In April, Bai Lowe, a former partner of Jammeh, was put on trial in Germany on charges of murder, attempted murder, and crimes against humanity.
While Michael Sang Correa, who is claimed to have been a hitman, was indicted in June 2020 in the United States, the former interior minister Ousman Sonko has been the subject of an investigation in Switzerland since 2017.
Justice is finally catching up.
Jammeh has been charged with a number of offenses, including rape, using death squads, and ordering the abduction of political rivals. The Gambia’s government promised to charge him in May.
The prosecution of more than 200 other people for crimes committed under the former president’s administration was also recommended by a truth panel, which the government agreed.
Jammeh went to Equatorial Guinea in early 2017 after losing the presidential election to President Adama Barrow in December 2016 and is still there today.
The NIA was renamed the State Intelligence Services by Barrow in 2017. (SIS).
