Gambia revokes diplomatic passport of former president Yahya Jammeh and his family

The Gambian government has revoked former president Yahya Jammeh’s diplomatic passport and those of his family.

The revoked diplomatic passports include that of 207 Gambians who have had their privileges cancelled with immediate effect.

Other names on the list include Jammeh’s ex-bodyguard Alhagi Martin, and former ministers Fatou Mass Jobe-Njie and Fatou Lamin Faye, Associated Press reports.

Jammeh went into exile in Equatorial Guinea earlier this year, having lost an election to Adama Barrow in December 2016 after 22 years in power.

Meanwhile, former interior minister Ousman Sonko is to be held in a Swiss jail for a further three months after Switzerland’s top prosecutor expanded an investigation into whether he committed crimes against humanity

Sonko who was in office from 2006 to 2016 fled to Sweden and later settled in Switzerland where he applied for asylum in November 2016.

Sonko has been in custody awaiting trial since January, after the Geneva-based legal group Trial International filed a criminal complaint accusing him of having personally taken part in torture.