By Adama Makasuba
A lawmaker has said she was ‘between life and dead’ as she explained her detention ordeals before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission on Tuesday.
Hon. Fatoumatta Jawara, National Assembly Member for Talinding was amongst dozens of United Democratic Supporters arrested and imprisoned by Jammeh’s regime in 2016 for protesting against electoral laws, which claimed the life of a political activist and UDP supporter Solo Sandeng.
In her testimony, she told the commission that she was kicked by a tall man who was in military trouser and dragged out of the interrogation room to torture room at the defunct National Intelligent Agency.
“This man grabbed me from where I was sitting then turned back and went…around, when he took me there, they stretched me on top of a table, they pour water on me, “she described before the commission.
She said her headscarf was used blindfold her by the personnel of the defunct National Intelligent Agency before she was tortured, saying “Immediately he grabbed me before we left the room, he quickly took my headscarf and tied it around my head and face”
She said when she was brought into the torture room “I was stretched on a table and they were pouring water on me, I cannot neither breath nor move, so some of them held my hand and some of them held my leg and some started beaten me up.”
She said the torturers were beaten all parts of her body until fainted and later took her before a panel, adding that the torturers poured her with cool water on her while beaten her with batons.
She told the commission that she could not breathed properly because of the hard tie of a headscarf.
