Former Gambia’s interior minister, Sonko standing in navy blue suit
Dakar – Police in Senegal say the Gambia official accused of overseeing the torture of prisoners under former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh has been arrested.
A police statement says Borra Colley was arrested Wednesday while trying to make his way to Guinea Bissau.
Colley had been director of the notorious Mile Two prison. He also led the Jungulars, Jammeh’s personal military of some 50 officers who reportedly went into exile with him last weekend in Equatorial Guinea.
Some former Gambian officials fled the country during the political crisis that ended this week with the arrival of new President Adama Barrow. Among them was former interior minister Ousman Sonko.
Sonko, a key minister of Gambia’s ousted regime has been remanded in custody in Switzerland after applying for asylum, the prosecution authority in Bern said.
Per prosecutors, the measure against the former interior minister Ousman Sonko would last for three months.
Several rights advocates have charged that Sonko belonged to the inner circle of former president Yahya Jammeh, and that he was responsible for torture, executions, and other human rights violations.
Sonko who was minister from 2006 until last year, before Jammeh was voted out of office in early December, is also accused of allegedly commanding special troops who persecuted dissidents.
Sonko fled first to Senegal and then to Sweden, where an initial asylum claim was rejected, per Trial International. He then entered Switzerland in November and had been staying at an asylum center in Bern.
The Geneva-based group Trial International, which seeks legal accountability for rights violators, filed a criminal complaint against Sonko.
