We may agree that General Martin had, in response to most questions, unintelligibly expressed himself. He could have responded to the salient questions better if he had not prejudice himself with dislike for the commission and counsel.

He appeared ready to provide scanty details of allegations of torture and other allegations of rights violations in which he either participated or was present.

The danger with such mode of testimony, which actually surfaced today, is that if the witness is not articulate and composed, especially in front of a brilliant examiner; both the bench and the public easily see the quilt and lies from the demeanour.

From the questions and answers, few important proofs and evidence emerged which tied down the truth of most evidence already received by the Commission.

First, witnesses who testified that they were tortured by the Junta and members of the Armed and Security forces, including today’s witness, were corroborated by Martin when he admitted to some instances of torture.

In fact, he had admitted that “beatings”, which by all measure of definition are torture, was the modus operandi under the circumstances.

He maintained that such treatments were the status quo to elicit responses to questions.

Secondly, after the testimonies of the first batch of former and current soldiers, including Sana Sabally, there was still some shadow of doubt whether Jammeh ordered other Junta Members to fight and kill the November 11 alleged coupists.

Martin, who maintained that he had always been with Jammeh, for the first six months of the coup, had revealed that Jammeh had “addressed the parade” and ordered for the coup to be crushed.

Again being a smart counsel, the witness was asked what he understood “crush” to be and he responded “to kill”. This evidential lead is now becoming stronger as more witnesses testify.

Thirdly, Martin had provided information that Jammeh was in charge of the three teams who had visited Mile Two to torture detainees in 1994, 1995 and 2006. He revealed that he led a team, while Musa Jammeh and Manlafi Corr headed other teams and were reporting to Yahya Jammeh.

Again, Jammeh was pieced to the torture sessions both at Mile Two and NIA. Similarly, Martin admitted that he was instructed to investigate both Sana and Sanyang by Jammeh,

Fourthly, one of the most revealing periods of TRRC hearing will be on matters of the special paramilitary group called the JUNGULARs who were answerable to Jammeh and act only on his orders.

The group was credited for the many gruesome killings, abductions and tortures.

Today, Martin, who identified himself as a person who “was closed to Yahya Jammeh” revealed that there were jungulars who were under the command of Tumbul Tamba.

This piece of evidence will be beneficial during institutional hearing on the armed and security forces as both former CDS Badgie and current CDS Kinteh must take some level of dereliction of duty by not standing firm to disband the Jungulars or bringing them under the command.

Fifthly, Martin admitted that the infamous confession statements and evidence derived from the soldiers by the investigation panels were falsified. Again he had corroborated Bunja Darboe and Amadou Sanneh’s testimonies that the written documents presented to the Court Martial and High Court were not written by them.

Again, Martin’s revelation about the falsification of the statements which were tendered in courts will facilitate discussion on what efforts courts did during voir dire to determine the voluntariness of those statements during institutional hearing on the Judiciary and MOJ. Martin admitted that fabrication of lies was what “was done”.

Finally, Martin tried umpteenth times that he acted in those ways because that the “circumstances”, “status quo” and the order of the day. These excuses have been given by officers who have been named as rights violators to conjecture a narrative that they played along because it was the safest thing to do. That narrative was false because not all soldiers participated in right violations.

TRRC should be supported as it documents human rights violations of persons who have been wronged hugely. Counsel Faal had employed the best legal interrogative skills to bring out the necessary evidence and proofs from a witness who was deflective, evasive and trenched in denial.

By Simon Sabally