Switzerland indicts former Gambian minister for crimes against humanity

Switzerland's attorney general has filed an indictment against Gambia's former interior minister for crimes against humanity committed under ex-strongman leader Yahya Jammeh, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Ousman Sonko is accused of having supported, participated in and failed to prevent "systematic and generalised attacks" as part of a repressive campaign by security forces against Jammeh's opponents, the Office of the Attorney General said.

Sonko's lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Sonko was interior minister from 2006 to 2016, when he fled to Sweden and from there to Switzerland, where he applied for asylum. He was arrested by Swiss police in January 2017 after the Geneva-based legal group Trial International filed a complaint under the principle of universal jurisdiction that allows prosecution of the most serious crimes irrespective of where they were committed.

Sonko has been held in Switzerland ever since.

The case is set to be heard by Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court at an unspecified date. It will be the country's second ever crimes against humanity trial.

"We are very satisfied that this is going ahead," said Philip Grant, Executive Director of TRIAL International.

"We hope this will generate momentum and that the trial will put pressure on Equatorial Guinea to eventually extradite Jammeh," he added, referring to the country where Gambia's former president fled to after a political crisis in 2017.

He said that Sonko would be the highest political figure ever to be brought to trial in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction.