Philippe Currat, a Swiss attorney defending Ousman Sonko, Gambia’s former interior minister in his Swiss trial for crimes against humanity, told the court on Wednesday that prosecutors had failed to prove their case.
Mr Currat said that after 13 days of hearings, including the testimonies of 11 witnesses, prosecutors had not provided sufficient evidence linking Mr Sonko to the violations for which he is accused.
Mr Sonko was arrested in January 2017 on charges brought by the Swiss Attorney General’s office, along with 10 plaintiffs from Gambia, who accused Mr Sonko of torture, murder, false imprisonment, rape, and deprivation of liberty, allegedly perpetrated against Gambians during the 22-year rule of ex-president Yahya Jammeh.
