Dawda A. Jallow, Attorney General and Minister of Justice has revealed that former President Yahya Jammeh will be prosecuted for his crimes and human rights violations as government dismisses recommendations of amnesty for Jammeh’s former VP Sanna B. Sabally.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice made these revelations at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre, where he presided over the publication of the Gambia Government’s White Paper on the report and recommendations of the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC).
“What I can say for certain is that former President Yahya Jammeh will face justice, the modalities on how to go about this is on. We are working on a prosecution strategy that will inform the process to go about this,” Justice Minister Jallow submitted.
According to him, out of two hundred and sixty-five (265) recommendations submitted by the TRRC only two (2) recommendations have been rejected by the government, noting that these two cases involved recommendations on foreign judges described by the commission as mercenary adjudicators and Sanna Sabally, former Vice-President of the military junta.
Justice Jallow justified the rejection of the recommendations on the alleged mercenary judges, saying they are no longer working in the Gambia nor residing in the country.
The Attorney General said the judges came from countries sharing strong bilateral relations with The Gambia, and the government does not want to jeopardize ties with countries that supported the country since its independence.
“Of course, the former President used the judiciary to do some wrongs, but this was not unique to foreign nationals only. To single out only foreign nationals and characterized them as mercenary judges as the Commission characterized them is not something that government can accept, so we decided to reject that,” Justice Minister added.
