Human rights lawyer Femi Falana SAN has urged the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda to “immediately open an investigation into the allegations of international crimes committed by the government of former president Yahya Jammeh.”
Falana said this Wednesday in his keynote address at a meeting by the African Network on International Criminal Justice held at Dakar, Senegal.
In the paper titled: Africa and the ICC: Achieving justice for victims and ending impunity across the continent Falana said, “If the ICC wants to be relevant in Africa it cannot continue to pick and choose the cases to investigate and prosecute.
For instance, the Prosecutor of the ICC issued warnings and threatened to prosecute politicians linked with political violence during the 2015 general election in Nigeria.
But no such warning was ever issued when former President Yahya Jammeh annulled a credible presidential election held in The Gambia in 2016.”
“Happily, the Economic Community of West African States intervened decisively and prevented the break out of a civil war in the country.
As the ICC cannot continue to turn a blind eye to atrocities committed by the regime of former president Yahya Jammeh of Gambia the Prosecutor should open an investigation into them under the Rome Statute without any further delay.”
