The Faraba report which recommended prosecution of five police officers did state that the police were “outnumbered” and “overpowered”, reinforcing views that they may have acted in self-defense
The commissioner of the Faraba Commission, human rights lawyer Emmanuel Joof, said some of the victims of the Faraba incident were shot by police while running.
In his first interview since the release of the interview, Joof told Kerr Fatou that while some of the police may have acted out of fear for their lives, that may not be true for all of them.
Since his report was published by the Government, critics said Joof’s report has gone after the helpless police officers and ignored the top officials.
“There were times when pockets of them were overpowered but we saw the autopsy report and we looked at the medical reports. Some people were shot running away from behind,” said Joof.
“Some even chased the villagers into the village and some other people who suffered gunshot wounds were shot from behind. Self-defense has to be from front.”
He also said the standard procedures of the police also require officers to first read a proclamation calling for protesters to disperse, if they don’t you use tear gas and if they don’t disperse and they are armed, you can order use of arms.
“Even in such situations you shoot below the knees,” said Joof.
The codename for the operation was also “operation no compromise”.
Comments are closed.