Gambia court orders seizure of former president’s assets News
Gambia court orders seizure of former president’s assets

A Gambian court issued an order to freeze former president Yahya Jammeh’s [BBC profile] remaining assets on Monday. Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said [Fatu Network, press release] that the order was “necessitated after the discovery of unlawful withdrawals” between 2006 and 2016 that possibly totaled $50 million. The order affects 131 properties, 88 bank accounts, 14 companies associated with the former president as well as a number of his livestock. Three of Jammeh’s cousins were arrested [BBC report] after selling his cattle. After 22 years in power Jammeh fled to Equitorial New Guinea when he lost the presidency to Adama Barrow [BBC profile]. Various luxury items, including cars, were loaded onto the cargo plane Jammeh used to leave the country. He has not been available for comment since leaving Gambia.

Shortly after his inauguration, Barrow promised to end human rights violations and ordered the release [JURIST report] of 171 inmates that who had been detained without trial. Barrow also recently announced that will stay in [JURIST report] the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website], whose primary purpose is “trying individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Barrow’s predecessor, Yahya Jammeh, had said that The Gambia would leave the ICC. Barrow’s election results were hotly contested by Jammeh, who filed [JURIST report] a lawsuit seeking an injunction barring Barrow’s inauguration in January. Jammeh also challenged [JURIST report] the election results in January before Gambia’s Supreme Court, but the court delayed hearing the suit until May. In another attempt to hold power, Jammeh declared [JURIST report] a state of emergency in January, a month after Barrow won the presidential election.

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