Gambian warlord’s violent ‘torture’ enforcer found living freely in Scotland

A Gambian warlord’s enforcer accused of a catalogue of torture is living freely in Scotland.

Human rights groups and ­politicians have demanded urgent action after the Sunday Mail traced former intelligence agency operative Alagie Morr to a flat in Glasgow.

Also known as Edrissa Jobe, he was a senior figure in the ­government of brutal Gambian president Yahya Jammeh, whose 22-year reign was characterised by extreme violence, arbitrary arrests, political ­disappearances and murder.

Government investigations have linked Morr to the beatings, sexual assaults and electrocution of detainees under his control.

Calls are now being made to make him face justice which could involve a return to Gambia, now a democratic republic.

But speaking at his flat in the east end of Glasgow, Morr said: “It’s not safe for me to go home. I will be killed or I will kill somebody.”

Morr has been living in Scotland for several years in the Barlanark area of Glasgow while an asylum application is considered.

Last year he was charged under the Abusive ­Behaviour and Sexual Harm Act in ­connection with an incident in which he was accused of pursuing his partner or ex-partner into a lane close to his home and kicking her in March last year.

The charges were later deserted by the Procurator Fiscal and no further action was taken.

Police Scotland and the Crown Office are understood to be ­considering information about Morr’s alleged crimes in Gambia to decide whether to take action here which could invole an extradition.

Gambia’s Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) named Morr was a high-ranking agent in the president’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Drug Law Enforcement Agency (DLEAG).

The commission’s reports repeatedly name him in ­connection with ­sickening incidents in which detainees reported being stripped naked, handcuffed, beaten and sexually assaulted.

One alleged victim who was left with broken teeth reported being kicked and having his clothes removed by Morr before having his pants torn off and genitals pulled and touched.

Some of those tortured reported being electrocuted but it was unclear which agents carried out this punishment.

Reed Brody, an international war crimes prosecutor and spokesman for Human Rights Watch in Brussels, said: “Edrissa Jobe, or Alagie Morr as he is also known, was a close ­associate of Yahya Jammeh.

“He has been credibly implicated in multiple cases of torture in Gambia where the Truth Commission has called for his prosecution.

“One way or another, in Scotland or Gambia, Alagie Morr should be brought to justice.”

When the Sunday Mail confronted Morr at his Glasgow home, the dad of two insisted he was not the ­“decision maker” in Jammeh’s government.

Refusing to direct his answers to a female reporter, he said: “I’ve been here for seven years. I’ve had four or five interviews with the Home Office and no response on my asylum ­application. I know nothing about an extradition. I love this place.

“Talk of human rights violations, it hurts me. I was not the decision maker in that government. ­Interrogation was not under my care.

“My job was to take statement and compile files to be passed to the prosecutors to make a decision on if they would have a case.

“I was trying to impose justice for my country and globally.

“The people who are accusing me of human rights violations and torture were people who were arrested and taken to court.

“The people involved in making these alleged human rights allegations know what they are doing.

“They know as soon as you are accused of alleged human rights violations and torture they know your asylum claim is done.”

Morr said his children are elsewhere and wife died four years ago.

He added: “I don’t know where my wife is buried or why she died. I will not live with my family feeling threatened as I was doing the right thing.

“As long as the government ­officials and cartel are conspiring, my life is not safe.

“Why are they after only me? There were 70 names but people who are still in my country have not been arrested.”

Morr lives in a flat filled with gym equipment. Neighbours had no idea who he was, with one saying they thought he was a night worker.

The 6ft 4in warlord enforcer also chased our photographer in the street.

Alba MSP and former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “The case highlights just how ridiculous the UK Government’s approach to asylum and immigration is, that the Home Office is obsessing over small boats and sending people to Rwanda, and meanwhile we are doing nothing about this man.

“It is unbelievable that he has been arrested in Scotland, then the Crown Office have just let him walk free, from what I can see. By all accounts he should be in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.”

A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said it was “inappropriate” to comment “at this time”.

22 years of violence and corruption

FORMER president Yahya Jammeh ruled Gambia for 22 years in a brutal authoritarianism regime in what is one of the world’s poorest countries.

He suppressed people’s rights, targeted the press and free speech and warned any gay or lesbian person would have their head cut off if caught in his country.

His government was also accused of being behind several human rights violations including the shooting of 2000 students after a demonstration, the killing of 50 migrants, the hunting and torture of 1000 accused witches and dozens of disappearance of rivals and critics.

In 2016, Jammeh was voted out after an election in which he tried to influence and contest the result, with the leader of a democratic party installed as president.

Jammeh and several other government figures fled the country with the former president said to be in Equatorial Guinea.

Earlier this month a Swiss court sentenced former Gambian minister Ousman Sonko to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity.

The 55-year-old former interior minister was convicted of intentional homicide, torture and false imprisonment.

Switzerland tried the case under the principle of universal jurisdiction which allows countries to prosecute people for crimes that took place elsewhere.

Sonko is the highest-ranking government official ever to be prosecuted under this principle in Europe.

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