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The son of AFP correspondent Deyda Hydara, who was shot and killed in the Gambia in 2004, received news on Wednesday that one of the journalist’s alleged killers was arrested in Germany.
Prosecutors said police had taken into custody an individual identified as Bai L., who is accused of being a member of the death squad.
He is suspected of being part of a Gambian army unit known as the “Junglers”, which killed Hydara on the orders of the then West African country’s president, Yahya Jammeh.
Bai L. is specifically accused of having helped the unit stop the journalist’s car on a road in the town of Kanifing, where two members shot him several times.
On Wednesday, Baba Hydara, the son of the AFP correspondent, said he was relieved to learn of the arrest.
“I hope that all those who committed crimes against humanity in the Gambia will one day be brought before a court of law for their actions,” he told AFP.
“I believe that justice will be served in this case,” Baba Hydara added.
Deyda Hydara’s assassination was widely condemned locally and abroad as another sign of Jammeh’s despotic rule and his stifling of all opposition in the former British colony.
There have been numerous calls for the former dictator to return to the Gambia to face trial.
However, he retains many followers in the country and some want his return to active politics.
