Equatorial Guinea May Bow to Pressure To Release Jammeh

With the Gambia government now putting mechanisms to prosecute exiled former president Yahya Jammeh and henchmen, American human rights lawyer Reed Brody has expressed hope that Equatorial Guinea will be open to release Jammeh to be prosecuted if they are requested to do so.

Last week, the National Assembly passed two bills expected to pave way for the prosecution of crimes committed during the Jammeh regime. The Special Accountability Mechanism (TRRC) Bill and the Special Prosecutors Office Bill are intended to provide frameworks and guiding principles for the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for serious human rights violations including Jammeh himself as recommended by the TRRC. The government is expected to establish a hybrid court to try these crimes.

Speaking on these developments, Brody told The Standard that since the hybrid court will carry the weight of the entire Ecowas region, including countries like Ghana, which lost 44 citizens in the migrant massacre, Nigeria, which also lost an unknown number of migrants, Senegal which lost several citizens and whose territory in Casamance was used as Jammeh's personal dumping ground of dead bodies, Equatorial Guinea cannot naturally reject any request for Jammeh's transfer.

“But in order to secure custody over Jammeh, the hybrid court, which will have its own legal personality separate from The Gambia, would presumably have to enter into a specific cooperation agreement with Equatorial Guinea which provides for the transfer of suspects to the court,” he said.

Source: The Standard Newspaper

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