From Truth to TrialIntroducing: Special Prosecutor Mr Martin Hackett

By: Ms. Fatoumatta Samusa

Since the submission of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) Report to His Excellency, President Adama Barrow in November 2021, Gambians have waited for prosecutions to commence as recommended by the TRRC. In May 2022, the Government of The Gambia responded positively to demands for justice and accountability through its White Paper, and for two years thereafter worked closely with victim-led organisations, the Gambia Bar Association, ECOWAS, and national and international criminal justice experts to design the country’s post-TRRC accountability framework.

By April 2024, the Special Accountability Mechanism Act and the Special Prosecutor’s Office Act were passed by the National Assembly. During a press briefing on 8th April, 2026, the Hon. Attorney General and Minister of Justice presented the profile of the appointed prosecutor who will lead post-TRRC investigations and prosecutions as head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, Mr Martin Hackett.

Mr Martin Hackett is a British barrister with more than 30 years of experience in criminal and international law. Called to the Bar in 1995 after earning his LLB (Hons) from Aberystwyth University, he has built a career in some of the most complex and demanding justice processes in the world. He served as Senior Trial Counsel at the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague, prosecuting international terrorism cases using sophisticated forensic and digital evidence. He led the War Crimes Division in Kosovo, handling prosecutions for crimes against humanity, including torture, enforced disappearances, and conflict-related sexual violence, while ensuring witness protection in highly sensitive proceedings. His advisory work has extended to Ukraine on war crimes and genocide, and to multiple jurisdictions including Uganda, Tajikistan, the Maldives, Iraq, and Kurdistan. In the United Kingdom, he has served as a senior prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service, specialising in rape, serious sexual offences, and counter-terrorism.

The TRRC documented years of serious human rights violations committed in The Gambia between July 1994 and January 2017, including enforced disappearances, torture, sexual and gender-based crimes, and murder. While the TRRC Report presents a historical record of these violations, the Special Prosecutor’s Office gives them consequence.

The Special Prosecutor’s Office is an independent and autonomous body, and Mr Hackett stands at its centre as the first Special Prosecutor, tasked with holding perpetrators of serious human rights violations to account under the law. The office forms the first phase of a broader Special Accountability Mechanism, which foresees domestic prosecutions being conducted before the Special Criminal Division of the High Court and, in time, cases of an internationalised nature being heard through the Special Tribunal for The Gambia, established in partnership with ECOWAS.

During his remarks at the press briefing, the Hon. Attorney General and Minister of Justice highlighted that the urgency of post-TRRC prosecutions cannot be ignored. Witnesses grow older, memories fade, and evidence becomes harder to secure. Acting now is not a matter of political convenience, it is a moral and legal obligation. For this reason, the Government has adopted a phased approach, beginning with domestic prosecutions while mobilising resources for the full establishment of the Special Tribunal. These efforts signal momentum, even as funding and sustained engagement remain critical challenges.

What Gambians are looking forward to is both simple and profound: a country where truth is followed by accountability, where victims are not asked to settle for acknowledgment alone, and where the rule of law applies equally to all. Mr Hackett’s appointment marks a turning point, from remembering what happened to answering for it. In this moment, justice is no longer a distant promise. It is a process that has begun.