Former Janneh Commission attorney Amie Bensouda took the witness seat at the TRRC today where she told the commission she serves no man.
The top lawyer came before the commission to testify on decrees the AFPRC junta ruled by between 1994 and 1996. She held the role of acting attorney general when the bad laws were being created.
Today, she told the TRRC she did not consider Yahya Jammeh as her boss when the TRRC lawyer Sagar Jahateh suggested it.
“Yahya Jammeh found me in government. I was the solicitor general and legal secretary of my country. I serve no man, I serve my country. So he was not my boss,” she told Jahateh.
Jahateh however pressed she wanted to know under what circumstances she reported to Yahya Jammeh who was chairman of the junta after she had returned from her trip.
“Because as acting attorney general at that time, you were a government minister working with the executive. My understanding is, correct me if I’m wrong, but you reported directly to the president who was the chairman at the time,” Jahateh pressed.
“The chairman was not president. The chairman was the person who usurped the authority of president. But he was de facto in charge, and that’s what military governments do. They take over and my the dent of their arms, they take charge of the country,” Bensouda responded.
An unrelenting Jahateh pressed again: “Before he took charge, there was a president sitting in his seat, so to speak. And when he took charge, he replaced President Jawara. And as acting attorney general, my question was whether you did not report to him?”
Bensouda replied: “If by reporting, I take instructions from him? Yes I did take instructions from him.”
“Where you also answerable to him?” Jahateh then asked.
Bensouda replied: “Yes, I was answerable to him. He made me answerable to him.”
She will later testify on the decrees that were passed while she was acting attorney general.
