A Gambian court has sentenced former Intelligence chief Yankuba Badjie and four other members of the security forces to death for the murder of an activist in 2016, during the last phase of former President Yahya Jamé’s regime.

Badjie has been sentenced to death along with Saikou Omar Jeng, Babucarr Sallah, Tamba Masireh and Lamin Darboe for the murder of Ebrahima Solo Sandeng, a senior youth official of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP).

The activist was arrested in April 2016 during a protest against Jamé’s proposed electoral reforms and subsequently died as a result of torture in custody.

The judge has acquitted Haruna Susso during the trial, while another suspect, Louise Gomes, died in custody before the trial came to an end, as reported by the Gambian television channel GRTS.

Solo Sandeng’s death generated a wave of outrage that materialized in the victory of the opposition Adama Barrow in the December 2016 elections. Although Jamé refused to accept his defeat, he eventually fled in January 2017 into exile in Equatorial Guinea, where he remains.

The Gambian government announced in May its readiness to try the former president after accepting the vast majority of the recommendations made by the Gambian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRRC), which in December 2021 indicted the former president in its final report for murder, rape and torture during his regime between 1994 and 2017.