Gambia continued to restrict freedom of expression. Government opponents, human rights
defenders and journalists were arbitrarily arrested and detained. Torture and other
ill-treatment were carried out by security forces and there were unresolved cases
of enforced disappearance.
Presidential elections took place on 24 November. The incumbent, President Jammeh,
was declared winner, continuing his 17-year rule. Political parties were given 11
days to campaign.
The National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the police and the army unlawfully arrested
and detained people. Detainees were rarely informed of their rights or the reason
for their arrest or detention and were often held for more than 72 hours without charge,
in violation of the Constitution. Torture continued to be used routinely to extract
confessions and as punishment.
In April, graduate student Mouctar Diallo was arrested by the NIA, accused of terrorism
and spreading revolution from Egypt to Gambia. After months under house arrest and
then several days in detention he was released in July without charge.
Human rights defenders, including lawyers and journalists, were unlawfully arrested
and detained.
In March, two family members of exiled opposition leader Mai Fatty were arrested and
detained for displaying political campaign materials.
On 7 June, former Minister of Information and Communication Dr Amadou Scattred Janneh
was arrested and detained at Mile 2 Central Prison along with Michael C. Ucheh Thomas,
Modou Keita and Ebrima Jallow. They were charged with treason, which carries the death
penalty, for printing and distributing T-shirts with the slogan “End to Dictatorship
Now”. Their trial was ongoing at the end of the year. Human rights defender Ndey Tapha
Sosseh was also charged but she was out of the country at the time.
On 19 September, Moses Richards, a lawyer and former High Court judge, was convicted
of “giving false information to a public servant” and “sedition” and sentenced to
two and a half years’ imprisonment with hard labour. He was released in October under
a presidential pardon.
Edwin Nebolisa Nwakaeme, a Nigerian human rights defender sentenced to six months
in prison for giving false information to a public officer, was released on 14 January
and deported after serving his sentence.
Journalists and other media workers were routinely subjected to harassment, arrests
and threats of closure, making it extremely difficult for them to carry out their
work.
In January, state security agents temporarily shut down Teranga FM, one of the last
independent radio stations operating in Gambia. It was later allowed to reopen reportedly
on condition that it stopped reviewing newspapers.
In July, Nanama Keita was detained and charged with giving “false information” after
he petitioned President Jammeh over his alleged wrongful dismissal from the Daily Observer newspaper, where he was sports editor. He fled the country after receiving death threats
he believed to be from the government. Journalist Seikou Ceesay was detained in October
for acting as a guarantor for Nanama Keita. Seikou Ceesay’s wife was also arrested
and briefly detained.
No payment was made by the government in the case of Musa Saidykhan, who was awarded
US$200,000 damages by the ECOWAS court in December 2010. Musa Saidykhan, former editor-in-chief
of The Independent, was tortured after state security agents raided the newspaper’s offices in 2006,
shut it down and imprisoned its staff.
In October, Justice Minister Edward Gomez stated during an interview with the Daily News newspaper that disappeared journalist Ebrima Manneh was still alive “somewhere”.
A journalist with the government-owned newspaper Daily Observer, Ebrima Manneh was arrested by members of the NIA at the newspaper’s offices on 11
July 2006. He was last seen in hospital under police custody in July 2007. The government
had yet to comply with a July 2008 ECOWAS court judgement, ordering it to immediately
release Ebrima Manneh from unlawful detention and pay US$100,000 in damages to his
family. The government continued to deny any involvement in his arrest and disappearance.
Thirteen death sentences were passed in 2011, bringing the number of people on death
row to 44.
In April, the government passed the Drugs Control (amendment) Act 2011, which replaced
the death penalty with life imprisonment for possession of more than 250g of cocaine
or heroin. The death penalty had been in place since October 2010 for this offence,
but was repealed to bring sentencing in line with the 1997 Constitution. Amendments
removing the death penalty were also reportedly made to the Criminal Code Act and
the Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 to make them compatible with the 1997 Constitution.
Also in April, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of seven of the eight people
sentenced to death in June 2010 following a grossly unfair trial for allegedly plotting
to overthrow the government.
Conditions in Gambia’s prisons were appalling. The harsh conditions of detention in
Mile 2 Central Prison – overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions and inadequate food
– constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
