Gambian ex-minister seeking Swiss haven

A  former top loyalist to the dictator who ruled the West African country of Gambia for 22 years has requested asylum in Switzerland, authorities said. Gambia’s former interior minister, Ousman Sonko, has applied for asylum in Switzerland where he has been been living in an asylum center in canton Bern since last November, Hans-Jürg Käser, head of the canton’s police and military department, confirmed to Swiss public television, SRF. Sonko, who commanded an elite squad that activists say was notorious for its brutality, fled Gambia after Gambia's then-strongman president Yahya Jammeh sacked him last fall. The ex-interior minister reportedly sought residency in Sweden before landing in Switzerland. As a former top lieutenant to Jammeh, Sonko also could offer a wealth of intelligence on former Gambian president Jammeh’s reported connections to money launderers, drug traffickers and others with ties to organized crime or terror-linked organizations. Troubling ...


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