Germany will start the first trial for Jammeh-era crimes on Monday (25 April) with former Gambian soldier Bai Lowe making his court appearance in the northern town of Celle.

Lowe is facing a murder charge over the 2004 killing of prominent journalist and editor of The Point newspaper Deyda Hydara. 

He is also charged with attempted murder 

of Gambian lawyer Ousman Sillah in 2003 who was shot multiple times in his house. Sillah survived the assassination attempt. 

German prosecutors alleged that Lowe worked as a driver for a hit squad known as the Junglers between December 2003 and December 2006.

“This unit was used by the then president of Gambia to carry out illegal killing orders, among other things” with the aim of “intimidating the Gambian population and suppressing the opposition”, prosecutors in the city of Karlsruhe said. 

The case is being brought on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity, including war crimes and genocide, regardless of where they were committed.

Bai Lowe was arrested in Hanover in March 2021 and has since been in pre-trial detention.

A group of international rights watchdogs on Thursday hailed the opening of the first German trial for grave rights crimes committed in Gambia. 

“I want to see justice done for my father and for all the others who were victimized by Yahya Jammeh and his security forces. Everyone involved in the murder of my dad will face justice, and we won’t stop until each one of them is brought to a court of law,” son of the murdered journalist, Baba Hydara, was quoted as saying by the Human Rights Watch.