Amnesty calls on Gambia to free jailed activist

London, 24 Jul – (ANA) - An activist serving life imprisonment with hard labour for printing and distributing T-shirts calling for an end to the dictatorship in The Gambia must be freed, Amnesty International has said. Dr Amadou Scattred Janneh, the country's former Minister for Information and Communication, was arrested in June 2011 after printing and distributing T-shirts made by the NGO ‘Coalition for Change – The Gambia’ (CCG) which featured the slogan "End to Dictatorship Now". He was found guilty of treason in January 2012.

Every year in The Gambia journalists, human rights activists and political opponents are unlawfully arrested, tortured, harassed and threatened making it impossible for them to do their work. The prospect of a fair trial for most people is bleak.

“Dr Janneh is a prisoner of conscience and is emblematic of the horrific human rights situation that prevails in the Gambia today,” said Ayodele Ameen, Amnesty International’s Gambia campaigner.

“President Yahya Jammeh continues to show a zero-tolerance attitude to any form of criticism and ruthlessly persecutes anyone who speaks out.”

“The dire human rights situation in The Gambia and the restriction on freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly makes President Jammeh’s self-proclaimed ‘freedom day’ laughable,” said Ameen.

“The Gambia must stop making a mockery of its international and regional human rights obligations and ensure the human rights of all people in the country are respected, protected and fulfilled” (ANA))

FA/ANA/24 July 2012--------------