Dakar, March 3 (APS) – The ECOWAS Court of Justice has deliberated on May 17 its judgment on the alleged extrajudicial execution, in 2005, in Gambia, of 55 nationals of member countries of the community space, learned the jurisdiction’s APS.
The case notably pits Kehinde Enagameh, a brother of one of the victims, against the Gambian state. The plaintiff would like the Court to condemn the Gambian authorities for their responsibility at the time of the events. He, through his lawyer, claimed the payment of damages in the order of 500,000 dollars, nearly 310 million CFA francs.
Judge Edward Amoako Asante, presiding Thursday in Abuja, held the date of May 17, 2023 to settle the case after a panel of three judges heard the parties.
During the proceedings, the plaintiff’s lawyer asserted that his client’s brother, along with the other victims, had been arrested, detained, tortured and killed in various places on the orders of the former president, Yahya Jammeh.
The victims were Nigerians, Ghanaians, Sierra Leoneans and Togolese in possession of valid international passports and other travel documents en route to board a vessel on the high seas bound for Europe.
They had been arrested by agents of the Gambian Navy on July 21, 2005 after the boarding of the boat on which they had boarded.
The lawyer said the victims numbered 58. Three managed to escape while the other 55 were detained, tortured and summarily executed on July 22 and 23, 2005, after being stripped of their travel documents. , money and valuables.
In court, he also submitted to the Court newspaper articles showing some of the dead bodies, a graphic report prepared by the Nigerian High Commission in The Gambia and confessions by the alleged perpetrators in the Truth, Reconciliation and reparation who sat in The Gambia after the exit of former President Jammeh.
According to the report of the hearing issued by the services of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, the Gambian government did not file any statement of defence.
Kimbeng Tah, Gambia’s senior state attorney did not dispute the value and legality of the documents presented by plaintiff’s counsel, but considered the case to be over after a reparations bill was passed. was proposed by the government to the National Assembly in order to compensate the families of the victims.