By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Gambia Parliamentary Newsletter (GPN) can reveal that the National Assembly will host its first Extra-Ordinary Session of the year to consider the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) Bill and the Special Accountability Mechanism (SAM) Bill on 22nd and 23rd April 2024.
Information received from numerous sources states that President Adama Barrow has signed a Certificate of Urgency for the Bills to be tabled and scrutinised by Parliament. President Barrow met Gambian Victims and Civil Society Organisations on 5th April 2024 where he spoke to members of the Alliance of Victim Led Organisations on the Bill. During the meeting, he promised victims that the SPO and the SAM will be tabled soon and will cost taxpayers D3 million.
The SPO and SAM are bills which will enable The Gambia to set up a legal mechanism to try perpetrators identified by the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) such as former President Jammeh and many others. The Bills will set up the Office of the Special Persecutor and lay out the legal framework which will enable the application of International Laws and the involvement of ECOWAS.
During an engagement organised by the Gambia Bar Association (GBA) last November 2023, the Minister of Justice Hon Dawda A Jallow first revealed that he anticipates the SPO and the SAM will be tabled in Parliament in January 2024 during an extraordinary session. However, this never materialised.
It now appears that the SPO and the SAM will finally be tabled early next week.
The Ministry of Justice first issued its “Findings on Criminal Liability Emanating from the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission” which included the names of numerous people who could be prosecuted back in December 2021. However, not much has happened in that regard.
MoJ’s TRRC Criminal Liability Statement Indicts Former President Jammeh & Others
Since then, several perpetrators have faced prosecution outside the country such as former Jungler Driver Bai Lowe who was sentenced to life in Germany and the former Interior Minister Ousman Sonko who is currently facing prosecution in Switzerland for crimes committed in The Gambia. Meanwhile, in The Gambia, only former Junta Leader Yankuba Touray has been prosecuted for his involvement in the murder of former Finance Minister Koro Ceesay. In addition to this another former Jungler by the name of Samuel Correa is set to face justice in the United States later this year.
This has left many victims calling on the Government to ensure justice is achieved in The Gambia to cement the mantra of “Never Again”. It remains to be seen if the Bill will be tabled and approved by Parliamentarians of the Sixth Legislature.
The Jungler and the Journalist: Bai Lowe’s Freedom Newspaper Assassination Confession