Bai Lowe, one of former President Yahya Jammeh’s death squad members, has been sentenced to life in prison in Germany.

He was standing trial for his role in the assassination of veteran Gambian journalist and co-owner of The Point Newspaper, Deyda Hydara, in 2004.

Lowe was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder for his role as a driver for the hit squad known as the Junglers.

Prosecutors had asked judges at the court in the northern town of Celle to hand a life sentence to Lowe, who denies the charges against him.

The Junglers unit was “used by the then-president of The Gambia to carry out illegal killing orders, among other things” with the aim of “intimidating the Gambian population and suppressing the opposition”, according to German prosecutors.

Lowe was found to have helped to stop Hydara’s car and drove one of the killers in his own vehicle.

The trial, which began last year, is “the first to tackle human rights violations committed in The Gambia during the Jammeh era on the basis of universal jurisdiction,” according to Human Rights Watch.

The legal principle allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes committed in another country.  

Reporting by Adama Makasuba