The Gambian defendant, Bai Lowe, holds a folder in front of his face at the Celle Higher Regional Cour in Celle, Germany, on April 25, 2022.Ronny Hartmann/The Associated Press
A former member of a Gambian death squad, a feared paramilitary organization known as the Junglers, has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a German court found him guilty of crimes against humanity.
The verdict on Thursday is another step forward for the principle of universal jurisdiction, creating new ways to seek justice for atrocity perpetrators who evade prosecution in their home countries, human-rights activists say.
Under the universal jurisdiction principle, foreign countries can prosecute serious crimes such as genocide and war crimes, regardless of where they are committed. Germany is among the countries that recognize the principle.
Bai Lowe, a 48-year-old Gambian man, was found to be the driver for the assassination squad in several of its attacks, including the 2004 murder of prominent Gambian journalist Deyda Hydara, a newspaper editor and a correspondent for the AFP news agency.
In his newspaper column, Mr. Hydara often criticized Gambia’s then-dictator Yahya Jammeh, who deployed the death squad to intimidate and oppress his opponents, according to German prosecutors.
The journalist’s son, Baba Hydara, who testified at the trial, said the court verdict is “a big milestone for victims.”
In an online news conference on Thursday, he said the verdict had seemed impossible when he first heard of the case. “This universal jurisdiction is something that other countries should learn from,” he said. “It’s a historic day for victims, and it will help us to go for the big fish: Jammeh. This sends a very loud message to Jammeh.”
The verdict on Thursday, by a regional court in the northern German town of Celle, is the first time any court has recognized that crimes against humanity were committed during Mr. Jammeh’s rule. Gambian courts have been slow to take action on evidence presented to a truth and reconciliation commission, which issued its final report in 2021.
Mr. Jammeh ruled his West African country for 22 years but was finally toppled in 2017 after trying to defy the results of an election that he lost. He took refuge in Equatorial Guinea, where another authoritarian regime is in power. Human-rights groups are hoping that he and other officials in his former government can be extradited for prosecution in Gambia, possibly in a new court with international members.
Two other Gambians have been detained in Switzerland and the United States for alleged crimes during the Jammeh dictatorship. Both are scheduled to face trial next year.
Mr. Lowe had moved to Germany as a refugee in 2012. In an interview with a U.S.-based Gambian radio station in 2013, he gave a detailed account of his role in attacks by the death squad. After his arrest in 2021, he said his statements in the radio interview were merely a repetition of what he had heard from others, but the court rejected that argument.
In addition to his role in the journalist’s killing, he was also found to be involved in the attempted assassination of a lawyer and the murder of a soldier who was suspected of plotting against Mr. Jammeh.
The Gambia Press Union welcomed the verdict. “This is a first step,” union secretary-general Modou Joof said in a statement on Thursday. “Our ultimate wish is to see Yahya Jammeh and the soldiers who actually pulled the trigger in the drive-by shooting of Deyda Hydara on Dec. 16, 2004, held accountable for this atrocious crime against a journalist.”
Fatoumatta Sandeng, a Gambian human-rights activist, said the court verdict will put pressure on the Gambian government to take stronger action against the perpetrators of atrocities under the Jammeh dictatorship. It will also send a signal to perpetrators that “there is nowhere to hide,” she told the online news conference.
Victims of crimes under the dictatorship were becoming “discouraged and frustrated” by the delayed justice in Gambia, she said. “Now they are hopeful again. “It’s a very strong message to victims that the world has their back,” she said.
Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom group, hailed the court verdict. It said Mr. Jammeh must now be extradited to Gambia or another country to stand trial.
The group had found evidence that a Gambian intelligence agency was spying on Mr. Hydara shortly before he was killed.