Jan. 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A Gambian court has ordered the release of five of those detained for their alleged role in a coup attempt in December and has announced that five other suspects have been charged for the alleged attempt.
The Gambian Prosecutor’s Office has pointed out that the five defendants are four soldiers and a policeman, including the supposed ‘brain’ of the coup plan, Sana Fadera, according to the news portal Kerr Fatou.
Together with Fadera, Ebrima Baldeh, Bara Touray, Bakary Njai and Fabakary Jawara have been charged. For their part, the three soldiers and two civilians have been released in the absence of evidence to prove their involvement in the alleged coup plan.
The Gambian Prosecutor’s Office last week asked for more time to finalize the charges, after the case was transferred to the Supreme Court from a lower court that lacked the jurisdiction to hear treason cases.
The Gambian government spokesman, Ebrima Sankareh, announced on December 21 the arrest of four soldiers who “planned to overthrow the democratically elected government of the president,” Adama Barrow. Days later, three other soldiers suspected of being involved in the plan were arrested.
Barrow was sworn in in January 2022 for a second term after the Supreme Court rejected at the end of December the appeal filed by the main opposition candidate against the official results of the December 4, 2021 elections.
The president, who won the victory in December 2016 after presenting his candidacy as an independent with the support of groups opposed to Jamé, was sworn in in January 2017 after the dictator went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after rejecting its defeat at first, which led to a threat of military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
