Bai Lowe, a former Gambian soldier and member of Jammeh’s death squad, the Junglers, has been arrested in Germany over alleged human rights abuses in The Gambia.

Mr Lowe was taken into custody in Baden-Württemberg and police searched his apartment, German prosecutors on Tuesday said.

He is being accused of being part of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder in The Gambia.

The arrest warrant said he belonged to a so-called “Patrol Team” of the Gambian military, also known as “Junglers.”

The unit was used by former president Yahya Jammeh to commit serious human rights abuses including torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The goal was to intimidate the Gambian population and suppress opposition to the Jammeh dictatorship. 

Bai Lowe is accused of acting as a driver for the unit between December 2003 and December 2006.

He is alleged to have been involved in a total of three such liquidation orders, driving unit members to attack sites.

Among those targeted was a journalist who was critical of the government, murdered in 2004, and a lawyer who survived an ambush a year earlier.

In 2006, members of the unit also shot and killed a suspected opponent of the Gambian president near the Banjul airport.

Bai Lowe, a native of Fass Njaga Choi, fled to Germany to seek asylum after falling out with the Jammeh regime.

Germany is invoking the so-called principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows German courts to prosecute crimes against international law even if they were not committed in Germany and neither the perpetrator nor the victim are Germans.