British barrister Martin Hackett has been appointed as The Gambia’s first special prosecutor to try those responsible for human rights abuses carried out during the 22-year rule of ex-President Yahya Jammeh, which ended when he went into exile in 2017.
Hackett will head a newly created office charged with dealing with the cases from a period characterised by widespread repression, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
The Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) was set up to document the extent of the alleged abuses.
In its final report, handed to current President Adama Barrow in 2021, it identified those most responsible and recommended their prosecution.
The TRRC, which heard harrowing testimony from victims, former security operatives and other witnesses, also called for reparations to be paid to the victims, warning that failure to act risked entrenching impunity.
The TRRC has started phased compensation payments, starting with victims of abuses committed shortly after the 1994 coup when Jammeh first came to power.
But for many survivors, financial compensation is secondary to accountability.
Among the most notorious cases highlighted by the TRRC were the 2004 killing of journalist Deyda Hydara and the murder of more than 50 mainly West African migrants, executed by security forces after being wrongly accused of plotting a coup.
A handful of perpetrators have already been convicted abroad under the principle of universal jurisdiction, including former members of the notorious paramilitary unit and death squad known as “the Junglers” – some of whom have been jailed in Germany and the US.
The appointment of Hackett, who has previously served at the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon and who investigated war crimes committed by senior military commanders during the Kosovo war, is seen as a decisive step towards domestic accountability.
Attorney General Dawda Jallow was quoted as saying that Hackett had a four-year mandate and was chosen from a wide selection of candidates.
Jammeh, who refused to co-operate with the TRRC, only left power at the insistence of regional leaders.
They sent in troops to The Gambia when he refused to step down after his shock election defeat in December 2016.
Now aged 60, Jammeh has previously denied wrongdoing and is believed to be living in exile in Equatorial Guinea.
