Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court was on Wednesday due to deliver its verdict in the trial of Gambian former interior minister Ousman Sonko, who denied charges of crimes against humanity.
State prosecutors sought life imprisonment for Sonko during the trial in January and March.
He is accused of a string of serious offences allegedly committed between 2000 and 2016 under the regime of former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh.
Sonko, 55, has been in Swiss custody ever since his arrest in January 2017 after applying for asylum following his sacking from the West African nation's government.
Sonko's lawyers argued for his acquittal during the trial in Bellinzona, southern Switzerland, and demanded financial compensation for the years spent in detention.
During the trial, the prosecution and the civil parties involved explained why they considered Sonko to be responsible for killings, torture, rape and other sexual crimes.
Trial International filed the complaint leading to Sonko's arrest.
The NGO "observed great relief on the part of the complaining parties to have been present, to be able to confront Ousman Sonko and to see how he reacted to what they said", Trial's legal advisor Benoit Meystre told AFP.
"Some also told us that the role they played in the trial contributes to their healing, regardless of the verdict that will be rendered," he added.
Caroline Renold, a lawyer for one of the civil parties, also stressed that "access to justice is fundamental for their recovery process".
- Alleged crimes under Jammeh -
The complainants' lawyers explained why there was no doubt, in their view, that Sonko was part of Jammeh's inner circle throughout his repressive regime.
Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron grip from 1994 to 2016.
Sonko was accused by Swiss prosecutors of "having supported, participated in and failed to prevent systematic and generalised attacks as part of the repression carried out by the Gambian security forces against all opponents of the regime".
The charges include nine counts of crimes against humanity.
He is accused of having "deliberately killed, tortured, raped and unlawfully deprived individuals of their liberty in a serious manner".
Sonko is accused of committing the alleged crimes first within the army, then as inspector general of the police, and finally as the interior minister from 2006 to 2016.
His lawyers argued that he should not be tried for crimes against humanity because the alleged offences were isolated acts, and acts for which they said Sonko bore no responsibility.
"There is no systematic nature, and the small number of victims for each episode, taken separately or in total, does not reach the threshold required to consider that it could be a generalised attack," Sonko's lawyer Philippe Currat told AFP.
Furthermore, "we have demonstrated that the abuses committed against the victims are not attributable to Ousman Sonko", but instead to the National Intelligence Agency and the Junglers paramilitary group, "which have never been under his authority or under his effective control".
- Universal jurisdiction -
The trial took place under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to prosecute alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide regardless of where they were committed.
Sonko's lawyers argued that he should not be tried on any counts predating 2011 when universal jurisdiction came into force in Switzerland.
Regardless of the judges' decision, "the Sonko verdict is going to give added impetus to the home-grown efforts in The Gambia to prosecute the worst crimes of the Yahya Jammeh regime, which, after long delays, are finally accelerating," said lawyer Reed Brody, a member of the International Commission of Jurists who works with Jammeh's victims and who followed the Swiss trial.
In 2022, the Gambian government endorsed the recommendations of a commission that looked into the atrocities perpetrated during the Jammeh era.
The authorities agreed to prosecute 70 people, starting with Jammeh, who went into exile in Equatorial Guinea in January 2017.
And in April, the Gambian parliament passed bills to establish the Office of the Special Prosecutor to prosecute cases identified by the commission and provide for a special court.