(acts of torture, false imprisonment and sexual violence committed as crimes against humanity)

As part of an attempted coup d’état in March 2006, Ousman Sonko is being accused, as an accomplice of a group of perpetrators, of having tortured various people, including members of the army, politicians and journalists, of having illegally deprived them of their freedom, as well as of having committed a rape in Banjul, The Gambia.

The plaintiff recalled having been arrested at the end of March 2006 by police and military personnel and taken to the police station in Kanifing and then to the Police Intervention Unit (PIU)’s headquarters. Without having been explained the reason of his arrest, he was then brought to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA)’s headquarters. There he was put in a cell with a detainee accused of having participated to the coup who has visibly been tortured and claimed to have been.

He was detained at the NIA until April 2006 and severely beaten by the Junglers, some of whom had been recruited by the PIU as he later learned. He had to endure terrible acts of torture until he fainted and was left to die. He suffered serious physical injuries, in particular his hands and mouth as a symbol of his journalist activities.

On one occasion at the NIA, he met Ousman Sonko and some NIA staff.

Upon his release on bail near the end of April 2006, he had to go to several hospitals. Since it was clear to doctors that he had been tortured, they did not want to provide him medical treatment because they were afraid.

He consequently fled the country with his pregnant wife to Senegal.

He suffered physical and psychological trauma from the violent events he went through. In particular, he was almost half blind, he had scars on his back and still had nightmares to this day. His whole family was also traumatized, in particular his son after seeing his scars.

At The Independent, everyone has been persecuted in a way or another. Sadly, the question was not to know if anyone was going to be arrested but when. According to the plaintiff, torture and tyranny started with the Jammeh regime.

Confronted to an extract from the casefile in which Ousman Sonko said that he did not know what had happened to him, the plaintiff explained that he did not believe this statement as the police was involved in his arrest and transfer to the NIA’s headquarters.

Coming next: Continuation of Plaintiffs’ interrogation about the March 2006’s events in relation to the persecution of journalists.