Former president must stand trial for journalist’s murder

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, now living in exile in Equatorial Guinea, to be extradited back to the Gambia to stand trial for the 2004 murder of Deyda Hydara, a newspaper editor who was the dean of Gambia’s journalists and RSF’s correspondent.

RSF issued the call after an army officer confessed on July 22nd to Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission that he carried out Hydara’s murder and said it was ordered by President Jammeh.

Detained since 8 February 2017, two weeks after Jammeh’s removal from office and departure into exile, Lt. Malick Jatta told the commission how he and two other military officers – who, like him, were members of a special unit – shot Hydara in his car on the night of 16 December 2004.