By Omar Bah
Justice Info, a respected most active information website on international justice, has named former President Yahya Jammeh among the 10 most ‘wanted’ former heads of state.
In a report detailing the club of heads of state ‘wanted’ for international crimes, Justice Info listed Jammeh alongside nine others including Sudan’s Omar el-Bechir.
According to the medium, though there has been no known international arrest warrant for Jammeh, a Special Tribunal for The Gambia to prosecute him is under creation.
Jammeh is accused of committing crimes and human rights violations during his presidency, between July 1994 and January 2017, including the execution of at least 240 people, enforced disappearances, rape, torture, arbitrary detention and administration of a false AIDS treatment.
“At the top of this ‘wanted list’ are those accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) – such as the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But the ICC is also looking for Sudan’s Omar el-Bechir, and its prosecutor has also filed arrest warrants for the leaders of Burma and the Taliban,” Justice Info.
According to the Justice Info, the French justice system is looking for former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who has taken refuge in Russia, while the Special Criminal Court of the Central African Republic is looking for his counterpart François Bozizé, who is in exile in Guinea Bissau.
“The former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, has fled to India to escape justice in her country, the Gambian Yahya Jammeh is in exile in Equatorial Guinea, and the Ethiopian Mengistu Haile Mariam is in Zimbabwe.”
