Delivering justice for crimes committed by the Gambian state under ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh is one of the major issues facing President Adama Barrow, who took the reins of the tiny West African nation in 2016.

Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron fist for 22 years but fled the country in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to political newcomer Barrow.

The trials for crimes committed under Jammeh’s rule have so far taken place in courts a long way from continental Africa’s smallest country, which is home to about 2.5 million people.

Former interior minister Ousman Sonko will go on trial in Switzerland on Monday accused of crimes against humanity committed under Jammeh’s regime. Sonko was arrested in Switzerland in January 2017 following an asylum application.

It comes just over a month after a German court sentenced a Gambian man to life in prison over his participation in a death squad that assassinated opponents of Jammeh.

The Gambian government in 2022 committed to implementing recommendations made by a truth commission, known as the TRRC, which probed alleged crimes committed during the Jammeh era.

The TRRC found that 240 to 250 people were killed by the state during his regime.

It also found evidence of widespread extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, witch hunts and other human rights abuses.

Barrow’s government said it would prosecute 70 people named in the TRRC report, including Jammeh, who fled to Equatorial Guinea after being forced out by a popular uprising.

In February last year, the Gambian government began working with regional bloc ECOWAS to set up a tribunal to try crimes committed during the brutal dictatorship.

At the end of December, the justice minister ordered the establishment of a Special Criminal Division within the High Court, which will try cases related to the Jammeh era.

But whether the former dictator will be tried remains uncertain.

There is no extradition treaty between Equatorial Guinea and The Gambia, where Jammeh still exerts influence.

While the region has faced a series of military coups since 2020, The Gambia has undergone a re-establishment of democracy.

Following recommendations from the TRRC, parliament in November adopted two bills aimed at providing reparations for victims of Jammeh’s regime and barring those suspected of having committed crimes from public office.