Gambia charges former spy chief with murder of opposition leader

chika ebuzor

February 24, 2017 6:33 AM

The charges were part of attempts by President Adama Barrow to re-establish democracy in the small West African nation.

Gambian President Adama Barrow looks at the audience from the roof of a car as he arrives at the Independence Stadium in Bakau, west of the capital Banjul for his inauguration ceremony, on February 18, 2017

The former Head of the Gambian National Intelligence Agency, was on Thursday charged before a Banjul court for the murder of an opposition youth leader who died in detention in 2016.

Yankuba Badjie and the Director of Operations, Sheikh Jeng, along with eight other officers were charged.

Barrow had released dozens of opposition activists from prison since he took office on Jan. 19, replacing Yahya Jammeh, who ruled the Islamic republic for the last 22 years with an iron fist.

Jammeh caused weeks of political impasse by refusing to accept the result of the December presidential election before going into exile in Equatorial Guinea.

Badjie took over at the intelligence agency in 2013, with Jeng as his deputy.

During their tenure, the intelligence agency carried out kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, torture, killings and rape, according to international human rights activists.

chika ebuzor