By Sanna Camara

A two-time award-winning Swiss journalist, Kurt Pelda, has made strong criticism against what he termed “exorbitant costs” of Ousman Sonko’s case to Swiss tax payers, suggesting that such costs could rather go a long way in supporting West Africa’s smallest country to prosecute. the embattled minister at home.

In Switzerland, he is popularly known as “a veteran war reporter” whose “fearless” journalism has shaped Swiss and international understanding of modern conflicts. He is not without shares of controversy, such as his ban from entering Syria since 2017 by the Assad regime, and the investigative reporting he conducted on extremist networks in Switzerland, drawing controversy and threats.

These, among other works have made Kurt Pelda a well-known and respected voice in Switzerland, having won Swiss Human Rights Award in 2014, and named Swiss Journalist of the Year 2018, along with his correspondence in Afghanistan, Ukrain and Russia.

His article, published on April 4^th this year while the trial was in the early second week of sessions, raised several controversial aspects, such as the costs of the trial to Swiss tax payers.

Pelda wrote that several victims were allegedly flown in from Gambia and housed in hotels at the expense of Swiss tax payers – a claim that is incorrect as Trial International had funded the participation of the said witnesses in the trial in Switzerland.

The 61-year-old also raised the matter of the costs of travel to Gambia of officers of the Swiss Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) “with special equipment aboard a Swiss Air Force Challenger jet. Each flight hour costs 7,500 francs, bringing the flight costs alone to around 90,000 francs.”

Additionally, he said that the Swiss Federal Court provided [Gambian witnesses] with free lawyers on the grounds that they were indigent. In total, an estimated a cost of 3.4 million Swiss Francs was spent as total cost of Sonko’s prosecution to Swiss taxpayers, he said.

“What he has to understand is that Switzerland has made commitments to Universal Jurisdiction at international levels; as such, it is obligated to respect these commitments under international law,” a lawyer who read the article said at the court complex in Bellinzona during the said week of publication.

“The case also provided Switzerland with an opportunity to set standards for prosecuting crimes against humanity through Universal Jurisdiction…,” the lawyer added.

What many also found controversial is that despite his publications about the trial, the respected Swiss journmalist has not stepped in the Swiss court for the trial since 2024 – at least, no one was able to remember his presence from the 2024 trial, nor the appeal sessions this month in Bellinzona.

We have translated the said article from German to English using the German digital translation too, DeepL, for the benefit of our readers.

Sonko Trial: Swiss Police Officers in West Africa, Exorbitant Costs

**By Kurt Pelda, 04.04.2026**

The judiciary is sparing no expense to convict former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko. Swiss police officers flew to West Africa for a hearing — and then stayed on to enjoy their Easter holidays.

The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona has reserved no fewer than twelve hearing days and seven reserve dates for the mega-trial against Ousman Sonko. The former interior minister of the small West African state of Gambia was already sentenced in 2024 by the criminal chamber in Bellinzona to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity, including multiple deliberate killings and torture. The case is now being heard on appeal before the appeals chamber, whose ruling can in turn be challenged before the Federal Supreme Court.

For the first trial, Sonko’s alleged victims were flown in from Gambia and housed in hotels. They were also provided with free lawyers on the grounds that they were indigent. The bill was footed by the taxpayer. Some of the Gambians have now travelled to Bellinzona again — though this time they have mysteriously managed to cover the costs themselves.

**Will the Air Force Jet Have to Fly to Banjul Twice?**

This week, the court questioned a witness in Gambia — a former member of a death squad — via video link. To set this up, the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) dispatched officers with specialist equipment to Gambia aboard a Swiss Air Force Challenger jet. Each flight hour costs 7,500 francs, bringing the flight costs alone to around 90,000 francs.

According to sources in the Gambian capital Banjul, the Swiss police officers plan to enjoy the country’s sandy beaches after the hearing, which took place on Thursday. They will not return until next week. Whether these Easter holidaymakers will be picked up again by the Air Force jet or will make do with an ordinary scheduled flight remains unknown for now.

**The Biggest Cost: Legal Fees**

The largest share of the costs is swallowed up by lawyers’ fees. In the first instance, the legal representatives of the victims and civil parties received 1.4 million francs. The fee of Sonko’s defence lawyer Philippe Currat burdened the public purse by a further nearly 1.1 million francs — even though the Geneva-based lawyer had originally demanded double that amount.

Currat had arrived at a figure of almost 2.2 million francs partly by incorrectly billing countless hours worked by his intern, and by charging for translation services at the lawyer’s rate rather than the much lower translator’s rate. He also sought payment for days on which he was officially on sick leave. For the appeal proceedings, the Geneva lawyer arrived with three additional lawyers in tow, including Sonko’s daughter. Who is supposed to pay for all of this is unclear, since the state normally only covers the costs of a single court-appointed defence lawyer.

The first trial in Bellinzona consumed a total of nearly 3.4 million francs. Sonko’s time in detention since his arrest amounts — at a conservative estimate of 300 francs per day — to a further one million francs. With the appeal proceedings and a possible further challenge before the Federal Supreme Court, the Sonko case is expected to cost the public purse at least six million francs in total.

**Why Is Switzerland Bearing These Enormous Costs?**

That Switzerland is shouldering the staggering costs of this mega-trial is difficult to comprehend. During the reign of terror of dictator Yahya Jammeh — who persecuted opponents, journalists, alleged witches, and homosexuals — Sonko served as, among other things, police chief and interior minister. In 2016 he fell out of favour and was dismissed, whereupon he fled to neighbouring Senegal. The now 57-year-old soon travelled to Sweden and applied for asylum. This was rejected, and so Sonko tried his luck in Switzerland.

The so-called Dublin procedure is meant to ensure that migrants do not file asylum applications in two Dublin states. Yet that is precisely what Sonko did after arriving in Switzerland. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), responsible for asylum cases, allowed him to live undisturbed for about two months in a transit centre in Lyss, in the canton of Bern. The affair only came to light through a *Rundschau* report on SRF in January 2017. A few days later, following a criminal complaint by the NGO Trial International, Sonko was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention.

Instead of putting him on trial in Switzerland under the principle of universal jurisdiction at enormous expense, he could simply have been deported to Gambia. At the time of Sonko’s arrest, a new president had already been sworn in, having defeated the former dictator Jammeh in elections. Jammeh had fled to Equatorial Guinea.

**Ousman Sonko Is No “Poor Refugee”**

Instead, the Swiss judiciary took charge of the case and needed seven years to secure a first conviction. Within the federal authorities, there are doubts about how useful this was — not least because of the high costs. No one, however, was willing to be quoted on the matter. In the meantime, a truth and reconciliation commission in Gambia completed its work and recommended to the government, among other things, the prosecution of alleged perpetrators — with former dictator Jammeh at the top of the list, and his right-hand man Sonko second.

A trial against a member of a Jammeh-regime death squad is currently under way in Gambia. Rather than spending millions on Swiss lawyers and flying victims from Gambia to Bellinzona, Switzerland could have financially supported a dedicated special tribunal in the West African state. That would have cost a fraction of the price, and Gambians would have been able to follow the proceedings directly.

That the trial is taking place in Switzerland is also puzzling because the Federal Prosecutor’s Office relied heavily on the groundwork of the Gambian truth commission when seeking incriminating witnesses. Its well-researched final report is also frequently cited by the criminal chamber in its verdict. It is entirely unclear what added value Swiss investigators — more than 4,000 kilometres from the crime scenes and without knowledge of local conditions — could possibly have provided.

There is also the question of whether the former interior minister of a highly corrupt country is truly so destitute that the state must provide him with a court-appointed defence costing millions. After all, Sonko was carrying cash worth more than 14,000 francs when he was arrested — somewhat atypical for a “poor refugee.” His conduct in Bellinzona also suggests that he has financial resources he is concealing from Swiss investigators. Sonko personally appealed against the reduction of Currat’s fee demands — highly unusual, since a defendant with no means would normally have an interest in keeping his court-appointed lawyer’s remuneration as low as possible. Should Sonko be definitively convicted and his financial circumstances later allow it, he would be required to repay the legal costs to the state.