EX-JAMMEH BODYGUARD FREED FROM COUP PLOT CHARGES BREAKS SILENCE

Babucarr Sanneh, a former bodyguard of former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, who was arrested and jailed for allegedly plotting to stage a coup in 2017, has broken his silence in a rare personal interview.
In 2017, Sanneh and seven others including former President Jammeh’s brother Yahya Beray Jammeh were convicted to nine years imprisonment by a court martial for allegedly planning to overthrow the government of President Adama Barrow.
However in 2020, Mr Sanneh and his fellow convicts were acquitted and discharged by the Court of Appeal on the count of treason for which they were convicted by the court martial.
The three female judges of the appellate court unanimously set aside the nine years imprisonment terms imposed on the men by the military court in 2019.
Sanneh’s ordeal reflects the complex and often brutal legacy of Jammeh’s regime, known for widespread human rights abuses including torture and extrajudicial killings carried out by elite units such as the “Junglers.”
Commenting on his arrest and imprisonment for the first time in an exclusive interview with Issues That Matter TV, Sanneh, a trained commando, maintains his innocence regarding any wrongdoing and emphasises his wrongful imprisonment.
He said his story is emblematic of the broader struggles faced by many Gambians caught in the political upheaval following Jammeh’s ouster in 2017.
He recalled that following his return from peacekeeping in Darfur, Sudan, in 2017, he was accused with some other soldiers of plotting to overthrow President Barrow.
“We were accused of forming a WhatsApp group to discuss and execute our plans.”
He said the whole saga started on July 17, 2017.
“I remember receiving a call from a senior officer at the Military Police at Fajara Barracks that I should immediately report to the barracks. I told the officer I was on leave but he insisted that I should answer. When I arrived he asked me to give him my phone and then informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him what happened. He said I and some other soldiers are suspected of attempting to topple the democratic elected government of President Barrow,” Sanneh recounted.
He said he was taken to a board of investigators who asked him so many unnecessary questions.
“It was later that I realised some senior soldiers were going around lying against some of us who were close to Jammeh just to gain recognition from the new government. We were reported to the then CDS Masanneh Kinteh who reportedly informed the government and was told to deal with the matter at the military level,” Sanneh said.
He said he was later taken to the NIA on eleven occasions and forced to confess but he refused.
“They did all the investigations and then concluded that I masterminded the coup. It was later that the intelligence team realised that the allegations against us were false.
He said it was after serving five months in incommunicado that they were arraigned at a military court martial in Yundum who remanded them at Mile 2. “We had a terrible experience at Mile 2 that I don’t wish for my worst enemy,” Sanneh said.
Sanneh commended Foñi Kansala NAM Almamy Gibba for standing for them throughout the court martial and later at the court of appeal.”

Source: The Standard