(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 third plaintiff to be called to the stand in relation to the 2006 events is a former Gambian politician and member of the National Assembly.

In March 2006, he was arrested within the frame of the investigation related to a suspected coup d’état against de Gambian government.

He is currently living in exile.

Ousman Sonko contested all the charges, on the events of 2006, brought against him in relation to this third plaintiff.

After having confirmed the statement he made during the course of the investigation – and according to his own words – the plaintiff explained that he had been kidnapped in March 2006 from the Parliament. Taken to the NIA premises on several occasions, he had been questioned on his suspected role in the alleged coup attempt and answered that he did not know anything about it.

He was submitted to on other occasions to acts of torture and explained that he had been subjected to heinous crimes and humiliation that he never thought a man could do to another one. He was eventually acquitted.

Despite his acquittal, he suffered important physical and psychological consequences from the acts of torture he had endured and remains ever since affected in his daily life.

With regards to the Gambian context, he explained that the political situation in 2006 was disastrous.

Coming next: hearings to resume on Monday 15 January 2024, 08:15 AM (CET).