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A Gambian army officer on Monday accused former president Yahya Jammeh of ordering the murder of journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004 and acknowledged that he was involved in the killing. .
Hydara, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the independent daily The Point, correspondent for AFP and Journalists Without Borders (RSF), was killed by unidentified gunmen in his vehicle in December 2004 in the suburbs of the capital Gambian, Banjul.
The murder was widely condemned locally and abroad as an additional sign of Jammeh's despotic regime and its smothering of any opposition in the former British colony.
"We opened fire, Alieu Jen and Sana Manjang, myself," said Lt. Malick Jatta during a public hearing before a truth commission, which appointed two other police officers. army in the badbadination of Hydara.
"Our commander, Captain Tumbul Tamba, communicated on the phone with former President, Yahya Jammeh, during the operation.He told him:" Yes, Your Excellency, "did you -he declares.
Jatta told the commission that his commander had given him an envelope containing dollars. According to him, it was "a sign of appreciation of the great man", a reference to Jammeh.
"I would be sure that it was from the former president.Tumbul had no source of funding," he said.
Jatta stated that one of the cars used during the badbadination came from Jammeh's fleet and was normally parked in the old man's stronghold garage in Kanifing, on the outskirts of Banjul. .
Jammeh had said in a Gambian television interview that the government had "no interest" in the murder. He hinted that the love life of Hydara had led to the murder.
In 2017, NGOs and families of victims killed under the Jammeh regime, including Hydara's son, launched an international campaign to bring the former despot to justice.
Papa Babucarr Saine, colleague of Hydara and editorial director of The Point, told the truth commission that earlier, Hydara had been killed for writing about the widespread corruption that marked Jammeh's regime.
"He has always sensitized the public about the regime's corrupt practices and the rights violations that were perpetrated at the time," local newspapers said.
Jammeh took power during a bloodless state coup in 1994 and led an iron fist for 22 years.
His refusal to leave power after the loss of the presidential election sparked a regional crisis in West Africa, which ended when Jammeh agreed to live in exile in Equatorial Guinea.
and-siu / ach / klm
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