Banjul - Gambia's special criminal court on Monday sentenced the country's former police chief to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking, corruption and theft.
Ensa Badjie, who is already serving a life term for robbery, was convicted alongside two former senior army officers for the crimes committed in 2010.
Judge Emmanuel Nkea found him guilty of “abusing the authority of his office for the purpose of gain by collecting the sum of 3 150 euros from Edrissa Masade under the guise that the President of the Republic had given him and others prohibited drugs (cocaine) to sell for him.”
A sliver of land nestled within Senegal on three sides, Gambia has over the years seen the arrest and jailing of senior military and police officers for crimes relating to treason, drug trafficking and corruption.
Eight of the country's top brass, including former army and intelligence chiefs, were in July 2010 sentenced to death for treason for an alleged bid to overthrow the government of President Yahya Jammeh, who himself seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994. - Sapa-AFP