Sanna Manjang, a former ‘Junglers’ paramilitary member, has been charged with the 2004 murder of AFP correspondent Deyda Hydara in Banjul
BANJUL: A former member of a Gambian death squad was charged with murder on Wednesday for the 2004 killing of an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent.
Sanna Manjang, arrested in Senegal on Saturday, faces two counts of murder for shooting AFP journalist Deyda Hydara and businessman Ndongo Mboob in 2006.
Court documents state he acted “with malice aforethought” in causing “the death of Deyda Hydara by shooting him with a gun”.
Manjang served in the notorious “Junglers” paramilitary unit used by former dictator Yahya Jammeh to crush opposition.
He had been on the run since Jammeh was forced into exile in January 2017 and was repatriated to The Gambia on Tuesday.
The court ordered Manjang to be held in Banjul’s Mile 2 Central Prison following an arraignment under heavy security.
Hydara was gunned down in his car on the outskirts of the capital Banjul on December 16, 2004.
The father-of-four, in his 60s, had worked for AFP since 1974, first as a translator and then as a journalist.
He was a co-founder of the independent newspaper The Point and was often critical of the government and attacks on press freedom.
International war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody called Manjang’s arrest “a pivotal advance for accountability”.
“Former Junglers have repeatedly identified him as a central actor in some of the Jammeh regime’s worst atrocities,” Brody said.
He added that Manjang’s testimony could serve as a “nail in the coffin” for Jammeh, who is living in Equatorial Guinea.
The Gambian government reiterated its commitment in October to arrest and prosecute Jammeh if he returns.
Details of Hydara’s murder were uncovered by a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) after Jammeh’s ouster.
The TRRC found that 240 to 250 people were killed by the state during Jammeh’s 22-year rule.
It also documented widespread extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances and other human rights abuses.
The Junglers death squad has long been accused of extrajudicial killings and torture by the United Nations and rights groups.
Jammeh came to power in a 1994 coup and fled after losing the December 2016 presidential election to Adama Barrow. – AFP
