By Adama Makasuba
Top lawyer Amie Bensouda has vehemently denied responsibility in aiding and abetting ex-Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh in drafting the decrees widely seen by Gambians as draconian.
Ms Bensouda was among key figures who drafted decrees for former Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh and his colleagues after they toppled the government of People’s Progressive Party in 1994. She was then the nation’s solicitor general.
Testifying before the government-backed commission on Tuesday, the respected lawyer figure, denied any responsibility in enabling Jammeh for his actions.
She insisted that she was doing her job as a bona fide citizen who had been working for the government that was overthrown by the military.
The former Janneh Commission Attorney said the military were not “a bunch of people who did not know what to do”, adding “I can assure you they did not need Amie Bensouda, Cherno Jallow or even a Fafa Mbai to do what they wanted to do.
Counsel Jahateh, meanwhile quickly asked: “I am glad that you used those three names because they were the ones on the ground…a delegate from Ghana could not have usurped the authorities of the Attorney General Chambers and drafted decrees for the AFPRC. It could have only been you, and in particular we were talking about the period before that when you were serving as Attorney General. So you must take responsibility for that part.”
“Learned counsel, responsibility is normally a positive word that when you ask me to take responsibility, I do not think that you are been positive or complementary. I think you are asking me to take responsibility for Yahya Jammeh’s action. I take no such responsibility,” fuming lawyer Bensouda fired back.
She insisted that the decrees didn’t enable former President Yahya Jammeh and his government, saying that: “Yahya Jammeh and his Junta took powered without the decrees. They held power without decrees. They arrested people without decrees. They tortured people without decrees.”
So, the decrees were intended to introduce order in our society,” she said, and that “to give and understanding to the people as to how the military intends to rule.”
