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Universal jurisdiction

News and expert analyses
25 January 2024 by Mariam Sankanu
Witness hearings end in Sonko’s trial Eleven witnesses have testified in the trial of Ousman Sonko, a former Interior minister of The Gambia accused of crimes against humanity before a Swiss court. Evidence covered alleged sexual violence, two murders, the brutal repr [...]
Solo Sandeng, opposition leader in Gambia, died in prison following his arrest during a demonstration in 2016. Photo: A demonstration by Sandeng's relatives at his official funeral in 2023.
22 January 2024 by Mariam Sankanu
The order to “shoot” and “kill” Solo Sandeng The trial of Gambia’s former Minister of Interior Ousman Sonko is entering its third week in Switzerland. The court heard evidence on the violent repression of April 2016 protests and the death of the opposition leader Solo Sanden [...]
Sonko trial (Gambia) - Portrait of Baba Jobe inlaid into the decor of the courtroom at the Swiss federal court in Bellizone.
18 January 2024 by Mariam Sankanu
Sonko trial: who is responsible for the murder of Baba Jobe? On January 15, for the first time publicly, a former prison guard gave evidence before a Swiss court on the murder of former Gambian businessman and politician Baba Jobe while detained in 2011. At the time, the accused Ousman Sonk [...]
At the Ousman Sonko trial in Switzerland, Gambian plaintiffs pose at the entrance to the court in Bellinzona.
12 January 2024 by Mariam Sankanu
Ousman Sonko faces the first witness The trial of former Gambian Interior minister Ousman Sonko started in Switzerland on January 8. While he denied all allegations against him, the accused had to listen to the first witness, the widow of a soldier he is accused of h [...]
Portrait of Vincent Lurquin: lawyer specialising in international justice (practising in Belgium), with a particular focus on the crimes committed in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.
9 January 2024 by Gaëlle Ponselet
Vincent Lurquin: "having the humanity to defend someone accused of the worst crimes" For once, we meet Vincent Lurquin outside the courtroom. Without his robe but with the same debonair air that characterises him, the lawyer shares with us his thoughts on the way justice is dispensed in cases relating to the genoc [...]
Gambia - Sonko trial in Switzerland - Photo: Swiss federal court in Bellinzona
8 January 2024 by Julia Crawford
Gambian trial starts in Switzerland for crimes against humanity Ousman Sonko, former interior minister of the Gambia, goes on trial in Switzerland this Monday January 8 for alleged crimes against humanity committed between 2000 and 2016 in his country. This long-awaited trial before Switzerlan [...]
Rwandan Séraphin Twahirwa sentenced to life imprisonment in Belgium for his involvement in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
22 December 2023 by AFP
Belgium: life sentence, notably for rape, for a Rwandan Rwandan Séraphin Twahirwa was given a life sentence by the Brussels Assize Court on Thursday night. The 66-year-old former militiaman, tried under universal jurisdiction, was found guilty of dozens of murders and rapes committed i [...]
At a trial in France, a Rwandan doctor (Sosthene Munyemana) is convicted of taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
20 December 2023 by AFP
Munyemana: a Rwandan doctor sentenced to 24 years in prison in France Sosthène Munyemana is the seventh Rwandan convicted in France under universal jurisdiction for their participation in the 1994 genocide. The exiled doctor was part of a group that "prepared, organised and managed the daily genocid [...]
Sonko trial in Switzerland - Photo : Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko at a conference on cluster munitions in Oslo (Norway) in 2008.
19 December 2023 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Sonko trial: what can we expect from Swiss justice? In this podcast produced with Asymmetrical Haircuts, two Justice Info correspondents take the floor. Mariam Sankanu, who is covering the post-Truth Commission period in Gambia. And Hannah el Hitami, who in Germany has covered seve [...]
Rwandan Séraphin Twahirwa and his two lawyers, Vincent Lurquin and Juliette Lurquin, at his trial in Belgium. He is on trial for his alleged involvement in the genocide in Rwanda.
11 December 2023 by Gaëlle Ponselet
"What judicial truth without material evidence?" During their closing arguments, Vincent and Juliette Lurquin went out of their way to defend their client Séraphin Twahirwa, a Rwandan charged before the Brussels Assize Court with having participated in the 1994 genocide. To try [...]
Syrians protest outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague (Netherlands).
11 December 2023 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Syria: a further step against mass crimes? On November 16, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Syria to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of torture. The order from this UN court, which is being increasingly called on to deal with mass violenc [...]
Lundin trial in Sweden - Ian Lundin arrives in court on the opening day of the trial in Stockholm. He is suspected of complicity in war crimes in Southern Sudan.
8 December 2023 by Olivier Truc
Lundin, the trial that “should never have taken place” The Lundin trial has now reached the end of its thirteenth week, with 90 weeks still to go. Torgny Wetterberg, defending Ian Lundin, on November 29 began his presentation of the facts. His client is one of the two directors of Swe [...]
Séraphin Twahirwa at his trial in Belgium for genocide in Rwanda.
7 December 2023 by Gaëlle Ponselet
"They were founders of a ruthless militia in Kigali" Pierre Basabosé and Séraphin Twahirwa were behind a group of murderous Interahamwe in the Gikondo sector of Kigali in 1994. This was the Belgian prosecutor’s conclusion presented on Monday December 4 at the end of their trial befo [...]
At the end of his trial in Germany, Gambian Bai Lowe was found guilty of crimes against humanity committed in The Gambia.
30 November 2023 by AFP
German court sentences Gambian death squad member to life in prison A German court on Thursday sentenced a Gambian man to life in prison over his participation in a death squad that assassinated opponents of former dictator Yahya Jammeh, including an AFP journalist. Bai Lowe was convicted of crime [...]
Trial of Bai Lowe in Germany for crimes committed in the Gambia (universal jurisdiction)
28 November 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
“Someone had to sacrifice themselves” Last Friday, a week before the verdict, the court in Celle heard the closing arguments of the defense and a final statement by Gambian defendant Bai Lowe. Both insisted on Lowe’s innocence and reiterated his claim that the self-in [...]
Bai Lowe is on trial in Germany for crimes committed in the Gambia. - Photo: Lowe enters the courtroom accompanied by police officers.
23 November 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
“Bai Lowe tried to make amends for something beyond repair” The trial for crimes against humanity of Gambian Bai Lowe in Celle, Germany, is about to end. On the 16th and 17th of November, the prosecution and joint plaintiffs gave their closing statements. As a driver for former President Y [...]
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his brother Maher are being prosecuted in France for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
15 November 2023 by AFP
Assad brothers charged with complicity in crimes against humanity Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher and two other generals, Ghassan Abbas and Bassam al-Hassan, are the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the French judiciary, revealed on November 14. They are c [...]
Séraphin Twahirwa goes on trial in Belgium for his alleged role in the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
17 October 2023 by Gaëlle Ponselet
"There was no roadblock, there wasn’t the space" The genocide trial of Rwandans Séraphin Twahirwa and Pierre Basabosé began in Belgium on October 9. During his first interrogation, Twahirwa denied any connection with the former presidential family, any involvement in the killing [...]
Magnus Elving is the Swedish prosecutor who prosecuted the Lundin multinational for complicity in war crimes in South Sudan.
10 October 2023 by Olivier Truc
The Swedish prosecutor who challenged Lundin Oil It was prosecutor Magnus Elving who opened the probe into Swedish oil company Lundin, accused of complicity in war crimes in southern Sudan. He is now retired and following from a distance the trial that opened in Stockholm on Sep [...]