11/02/2025
The TRRC Lead Counsel Mr. Essa Faal Prosecuted November 11th 1994 Alleged Coupist for Yaya Jammeh.
When we carefully examine the foundations of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission - TRRC in the Gambia, it becomes evident that our 2016 revolution that ended two decades of dictatorship was hijacked by controversial and corrupt lawyers like Essa Faal, now Presidential Aspirant under the artful watch of his boss Former Justice Minister Ba Tambadou.
Essa Faal was a key lawyer who prosecuted victims of the November 11, 1994 alleged coup in a Gambian Military Tribunal. Evidence suggests that these victims were severely tortured before their court hearings. To the best of my understanding, the victims appealed to the court to consider rewriting their statements since their statements were taken under duress but Essa Faal who was the State Counsel at the time together with justice Akamba rejected the appeal on the basis that the statements were voluntarily taken .
Prominently among those Mr. Essa Faal prosecuted includes Seedy Manjang, kariba Camara, Nyanza kabareh, Mr. Njie and Manneh. Mr. Faal's discriminatory and bias practices were evident when he tactically sidelined or denied the appearance of such November 11th 1994 alleged Coup victims before the TRRC for fears that his corrupt and unethical legal history may hunt him on the National stage. Instead, the ruthless and unrepentent Faal only accepted their written Statement. Mr. Faal knew clearly that he violated their constitutional right to counsel and doesn't want his complicity in wrongful or pervasive posecution be in the National and International Spotlight.
The question now lies on how Essa Faal was designated with role of lead counsel after presiding over the abuse of human rights and perversions of the due process of the law during periods of dictatorship. Perhaps Former Justice Minister Ba Tambadou can provide Gambians with an explanation.
With such a record of abusing human rights and playing such a controversial and contradictory role under a dictatorship that took the nation hostage for two decades, Mr Essa Faal lacks the moral authority and the legal ethical competence to serve as the Lead Counsel of a fact finding institution designed to establish a historical record of rights abuses of a two decades dictatorship that he served, entrenched and Complicit to.
And now Mr. Essa Faal want to become our next President after serving a criminal state that destroyed lives and subjected many citizens to inhumane conditions that will hunt them for the rest of their lives.
No wonder why the TRRC report is still in the balance. Perhaps the report will trigger more questions about facts, trust and reliability than provide answers.
Mr Faal must do himself good, apologize to Gambians and give up his Presidential ambition.
By Dr. Binneh Minteh
Professor of Criminal Justice
Former Army First Lieutenant
