It 16 years on, the family members, Gambian journalists and friends are still seeking for justice over the death of Deyda Hydara, the advocate of press freedom and a fierce critic of the government of former President Yahya Jammeh.
Assassinated on 16th December, 2004, the question on the front top of the newspaper he co-founded, The Point, along with Pap Saine and Babucarr Gaye is “Who Killed Deyda Hydara?” and this question was answered in a testimony of Lt Malick Jatta before the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) on July 22, 2019 as he, Malick Jatta confessed to the Commission that Deyda Hydara was shot on the orders of former President Jammeh.
He confirmed that Yahya Jammeh ordered the killing in an operation meant to get rid of the ‘magic pen’ (a codename referring to Mr. Hydara). Jatta gave details of how the killing was planned and executed. He also told the commission how he and his colleagues who took part in the operation were given envelopes containing cash as a “sign of appreciation from the big man”, a reference to the former president Yahya AJJ Jammeh.
This is the first answer that family members, Gambian journalists and friends were waiting for – to know who Killed Deyda Hydara. Now the second questions that need to be answered on the front page of The Point Newspaper is “Why was he Killed?”
It was sad for Gambian and the world to know that Hydara was shot on the orders of Jammeh. Disturbingly, Yahya Jammeh seems uninterested in pursuing the murderers. He told reporters that his government “has for long been accused by the international community and so-called human rights organizations for the murder of Deyda Hydara, but we have no stake in this issue.” Referring to the online version of The Point, he added, “And up to now one of these stupid websites carries “Who Killed Deyda Hydara”? Let them go and ask Deyda who killed him.”
When the Gambia Press Union (GPU) issued a statement in response to President Jammeh’s June comments, six journalists including The Point‘s editor-in-chief, Pap Saine, were charged and eventually found guilty of six counts of seditious publication and criminal defamation, and sentenced to two years in prison. They were later pardoned by the president at the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Gambians welcomed their release but noted that the courts should have rejected the case out of hand rather than relying on the “arbitrary mercy” of the president.
In June 2014, a decade after his assassination, the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice found the Gambian government liable for failing to diligently investigate Deyda Hydara’s murder.
The GPU remains defiant: “To those who brutally murdered Deyda Hydara, you have failed miserably in your evil design to silence the voice of truth. Your criminal act has in fact turned his voice into a universal voice of truth and a universal voice of condemnation of evil and injustice.”
However, journalists in The Gambia want the perpetrators to be brought to book and face justice!