Stop the execution spree in Gambia

Following the news that President Jammeh of Gambia has suspended the execution of prisoners on death row, this action is currently closed. Thank you to all of you who have sent a message to the Gambian authorities. Read more about this story

About this action

'By the middle of next month all the death sentences would have been carried out to the letter.' – President Jammeh, speaking on 19 August 2012

'These past few days have been something like a nightmare. We don't know what’s happening – who is dead and who is alive. And we don’t know who will be next.' - wife of a death row prisoner in Gambia

On Thursday 23 August eight men and one woman on death row in Gambia were dragged from their cells without warning and shot by firing squad. They died without being able to say good bye to their families, and they were not warned that they were going to be killed.

They were the first people to be executed in the country for 27 years. Their deaths confirm that President Yahya Jammeh was not bluffing when he threatened to kill all death row inmates by the middle of September. Now, at least 38 others are at serious risk of meeting the same end.

In Gambia this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is being used on those convicted of political charges. Many inmates claim to have had confessions tortured out of them and we are concerned that those being executed didn’t receive fair trials in the first place.