The Gambia has announced the appointment of Briton Martin Hackett as the special prosecutor to lead investigations and preside over the prosecution of crimes thought to have been committed during 22 years under former President Yahya Jammeh.
Accouncing the announcement at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center on Wednesday, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dawda A Jallow said the Mr Hackett was chosen among an impressive array of candidates who had applied for the role following an international advertisement of the position.
Hackett who would temporarily be housed at the ministry of justice in Banjul as he assumes office this month, has a four-year mandate and would be involved in the recruitment of other staff of his office including the deputy special prosecutor.
The Special Prosecutor’s role will be to investigate cases of crimes committed from 1994 when Jammeh came to power to January 2017 after his ouster in presidential election by his current successor Adama Barrow.
Hackett will rely on testimonies by victims, witnesses and alleged perpetrators catalogued by Gambia’s truth commission between 2019 and 2021.
The Briton and his team would review materials from the TRRC to determine the prosecutorial decision for cases against those accused of crimes during Jammeh’s 22-year rule.
At the end of its work in 2021, the truth commission had recommended the prosecution of some 69 individuals thought to have bore the greatest responsibility for alleged Jammeh-era crimes including extradjudicial killings, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, and forced disappearances among others.
Minister Jallow told journalists that the appointement of a special prosecutor whose appointment was not influenced by him or any member of the government was determined by a panel of judges including Fatou Bom Bensouda, a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to the minister, Hackett’s appointment which was determined by merit instead of nationality or any other irrelevant consideration, would be subjected to a very transparent process which would be amenable to public scrutiny.
The minister said it is a government policy to prosecute former President Jammeh but pointed out that the jurisdiction of a future trial in or outside The Gambia will depend on the result of consultation with Ecowas.
In 2024, Banjul and the regional body signed a deal for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute alleged Jammeh-era perpetrators of killings, torture, rape and other forms of abuse on political opponents, activists, journalists and foreign migrants.
”We want to build forensic capability out of this process and we need help from our traditional partners to work toward this objective” said Minister Jallow, who acknowledged the government’s limited capacity to determine the identities of the former regime’s alleged victims who had died.
”We do not have local forensic capacity to determine the remains of victims who were exhumed years ago” he added, indicating that the government is working with its international partners to develop human and institutional capacities in both financial and technical terms.
WN/as/APA