By Omar Bah
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice has said the Ecowas Commission has welcomed the idea of establishing a hybrid court to prosecute Jammeh-era crimes. Minister Dawda A Jallow travelled to Abuja on Sunday with the Solicitor General and two other senior lawyers to meet the Ecowas Commission President Omar Touray.
Speaking to Voice of America shortly after the meeting, Minister Jallow said: “I just came out of a meeting with the president of the Ecowas Commission and we have started discussions on the modalities of cooperation between Gambia and Senegal to set up a hybrid court for the trial of the TRRC offences.
“In principle we have not forwarded to them a formal request yet. This is a formal engagement to communicate to them our intention of choosing Ecowas as our closest ally coming together and partnering with them to do this undertaking. The feedback in principle is that the idea was well received by the Ecowas president and his staff and we are now going to explore this together to bring this to reality,” AG Jallow said.
He said the Gambia will have to formally write and make a request and Ecowas will respond accordingly and then they will move forward.
Minister Jallow said Gambian domestic courts do not have jurisdiction to try some of the offences that were alleged in the TRRC report.
“We need an arrangement that will bring international jurisdiction for some of the crimes to be prosecuted. As a result, we needed an international ally and, in that regard, Ecowas is our closest ally,” he said.
Minister Jallow further disclosed that Ecowas has been accompanying the Gambia since 2017 when the former dictator left power. “You will understand that Ecowas special forces, Ecomig, are still in the Gambia.”
“You may also understand that Ecowas member countries may have vested interest in our transitional justice program because some West African nationals were also massacred in the Gambia some years ago and this accountability is what we are pursuing for those who bears the greatest responsibility of those violations – Ecowas and its member states have a vested interest in the process so there are lot of areas that makes the Ecowas the most ideal partner in this endeavour,” he stated.
On Jammeh’s extradition, Minister Jallow commented: “When we get to that point yes, definitely – you know generally criminal trials cannot be held in absentia especially considering the kind of crimes we are looking at here so when the court is established all necessary steps will be taken to extradite the former president to face justice.”
Jallow said generally Gambians want to see justice served and the government is committed to doing that but “you cannot dispel the fact that the former president may still have some loyalists in the country and they may not be happy to see him face justice but generally I think everybody agrees that if people commit crimes especially crimes of this nature it is just fair enough that they are held to account for the crimes they have committed.”
