Home : News : Gambia News: Gambia charges former rebels for spying
Gambia News: Gambia charges former rebels for spying
A court in Gambia has charged eight members of the recalcitrant faction of a Senegalese ex-rebel movement with spying and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, a judiciary official said on Tuesday.
According to a court document obtained by AFP on Tuesday, the eight, whose date of arrest has not been specified, "conspired to carry out acts of terrorism against" Senegal while on Gambian territory between 2004 and 2006.
They are members of the Movement of Democratic Forces in Casamance (MFDC) rebels loyal to Salif Sadio, fighting for the independence of the agriculturally rich southern Senegalese province.
The main faction of MFDC rebels in Casamance is engaged in a peace process with Dakar, which lies on Senegal's coast well to the north of Gambia, which splits Casamance from the rest of Senegal as an enclave stretching east from the Atlantic along the river of the same name.
The prosecution found the group's acts "prejudicial to the public security and national defence of Gambia and thereby committing an offence".
Appearing for the first time in court on Monday, the men were also accused of receiving stolen property and unlawfully being in possession of Gambian national identity cards.
They pleaded not guilty.
The men were not granted bail and were ordered back to court on October 8 for trial.
Their court appearance came a fortnight after Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade dispatched senior officials to Gambia to seek from President Yahya Jammeh, the release of an unknown number of MFDC members.
A Dakar-based rights organisation, the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights (RADDHO), last month demanded the release of MFDC members from Gambia, claiming about 30 were being held under inhuman conditions.
According to RADDHO, authorities in Banjul suspect the MFDC aided the instigators of a foiled March 2006 coup plot against Jammeh.
The MFDC first launched a separatist bid in the early 1980s.
Negotiations between the Dakar government and the MFDC were officially launched in February 2005, in accordance with the general peace agreement signed on December 30, 2004. - Sapa-AFP
1870 times read
|
|
|
Rate this Gambia Article
 (total 164 votes)
|
Gambia News
Gambia Archive
Newsletter
Poll: 2011- Gambia General Election
Comment on This Gambia News (0 posted)
Syndication
