Former Gambian intelligence chief sentenced to death for murder of activist

July 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A Gambian court has sentenced former intelligence chief Yankuba Badjie and four other members of the security forces to death for the murder of an activist in 2016, during the last stage of the regime of former President Yahya Jamé.

Badjie has been sentenced to death along with Saikou Omar Jeng, Babucarr Sallah, Tamba Masireh and Lamin Darboe for the murder of Ebrahima Solo Sandeng, a senior youth official from the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP).

The activist was arrested in April 2016 during a protest against the electoral reforms proposed by Jamé and later died as a result of torture suffered in custody.

The judge has acquitted Haruna Susso during the process, while another suspect, Louise Gomes, died in custody before the process came to an end, as reported by the Gambian television network GRTS.

The death of Solo Sandeng generated a wave of indignation that materialized in the victory of the opposition Adama Barrow in the December 2016 elections. Although Jamé refused to accept his defeat, he ended up fleeing in January 2017 into exile in Equatorial Guinea. , where it remains.

The Government of Gambia announced in May its willingness to try the former president after accepting the vast majority of the recommendations made by the Gambia Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRRC), which in December 2021 accused the former president in its final report of murders, rapes and torture during his regime between 1994 and 2017.