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Gambia: Treason Trial - Marabout Alleges Torture

Omar Faal Keita, the seventh accused person in the treason trial of those accused of involvement in the March 2006 aborted coup d'etat on Thursday, May 17, alleged at the High Court that he was severely beaten at the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) headquarters.

Faal was testifying as a defence witness in the trial within a trial (voir dire) which is meant to test the voluntariness of the statement obtained by the security forces from the accused persons when they were being investigated.

Faal told the court that he was arrested at his home on March 28, 2006, by two NIA officers who came with some armed soldiers who were waiting by his gate.

He said that the six military officers beat him seriously before he got into the vehicle. Upon arrival at the NIA, he said that he found military officers in black uniforms who asked him to lie down.

Faal added that before he lied down, one of the men who picked him up at his home dipped his hand into his pocket and confiscated 500 pounds, 300 dalasis, a mobile phone, his passport and phonebook.

The accused person said that as he lied down, about twelve men descended on him and beat him up with plastic whips to their satisfaction. He said that after the beatings, he was taken upstairs at the NIA building where he was asked to make a statement.

Faal said that two men, Malick Jatta and Ismaila Jammeh (a soldier), were in the room where he was asked to make a statement.

He went on to say that no statement was taken from him and he was driven from the NIA to the state central prison at Mile 2, where his clothes were ripped off and he was allocated a cell.

The following night, he said he was collected by Salif Jammeh and Omar Colley (a prison warden) to the NIA office while his hands were cuffed and twisted to his back. He added that this happened about twenty minutes after midnight on March 29, 2006, and he was put into the cabin of the vehicle with another suspect who is now released and driven to the NIA.

According to him, as he stepped into the NIA headquarters, about twenty men in black uniforms used knives, hammers and plastic whips and started to beat him. He alleged that the knives they used are like those with the military.

Faal alleged that they pulled his beards to an extent that blood was oozing from his chin. "One of them Malick Jatta, shaved my beards with the knives."

He also said that they put off cigarettes into his nose and later on wrapped his head with two plastic bags.

Faal said that at this moment he could not know from where the beating was coming from as his face was covered with the bags.

Faal added that after the men removed the bag from his head, one Ismaila Jammeh brought a concrete block, and he was asked to put his feet on the block and they hit his feet with the hammer. He said he sustained an injury and blood spilled from his legs.

Faal's scars on his leg and under his chin were shown to the presiding judge, Justice Avril Anin - Yeboah.

He went on to say that a knife was placed on his finger and it was pressed. He said this resulted to serious pain and bleeding. He said he was threatened that his fingers will be cut off if he does not make a statement.

After the shaving of his beards, Malick Jatta put the knife on his neck and threatened to behead him but a military officer restrained him. He said that at that moment, Malick sat by him and told him that he knows that he is an elderly man, but all this is happening to him because he is involved in the coup d'etat.

Faal said he told him that he knows nothing about it and he was in Senegal for the annual "Magal" in Touba from where he returned in March 22, 2006.

Faal added that he was taken upstairs where he met Lamin Cham, a detective police officer, who had already prepared a statement which he declined to sign.

Faal disclaimed what Cham testified in court that they were speaking English, Wollof and Mandinka. "We spoke in Mandinka only," he asserted.

He also said he never knew or saw Babou Loum who appeared during the investigation as an independent witness and also in court as a prosecution witness.

He said on one occasion he was taken back to his residence, Kerr Serign where the security officials were looking for some papers.

He denied being Daniel Keita or having multiple names and that he never met Abdoulie Sowe and Boto Keita.

He said that he could not sign or write his statement as he was feeling the pain from his beatings, noting that Cham had already written the statement, asking him to sign it.

Faal finally said he was in Senegal for the Magal where a British lady, Saida called him and said that she wanted to see him as his marabout, and to compensate him for his prayers to her.