Philippe Currat, the lawyer representing Gambia’s former interior minister, Ousman Sonko, who is on trial for crimes against humanity committed under the leadership of former president Yahya Jammeh, has requested the Federal Court of Bellinzona to acquit his client and award him US$1 million in compensation for wrongful detention.

Lawyer Philippe Currat considered that his client’s trial was an attempt to exert pressure on Equatorial Guinea, where former Guinean President Yahya Jammeh took refuge after his fall in early 2017.

Sonko, who first served in the military and rose through the ranks to command the State Guards, an elite military unit that guards the Gambian presidency, is facing charges of murder, rape, false imprisonment, and torture brought against him by Swiss authorities and ten Gambian plaintiffs. He served as the head of the Gambia police and the interior minister, overseeing the internal security matters of the country from 2006 to 2016.

Currat argued before the court that, “Of all the ministers who served during Yahya Jammeh´s presidency, none was ever prosecuted anywhere, neither in The Gambia nor anywhere else, because everyone knows that the responsibility does not lie there, but with the Junglers and the NIA, who were only answerable to the president and no one else.”

The trial, which began on January 8, 2024, saw the hearing of pleadings from the prosecutors and the defense begin on March 4 and is expected to end on March 11. The Swiss prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Sonko to life imprisonment, citing the Bai Lowe verdict in Germany as precedent.

During the 13-day hearing in January, some witnesses accused Sonko of participating in panels of investigation that authorized and oversaw the torture of detainees and the rape of at least one individual. Sonko has denied any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the proceedings were conducted strictly in German without translation, causing difficulties for Gambian journalists who traveled to Bellinzona to cover the trial. Sonko’s lawyer also complained that his client could not follow the proceedings due to the language barrier.