The sentence was passed at the end of the country's first trial for abuses committed under President Yahya Jammeh's regime.

Forty-eight year old Bai Lowe was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder in a total of three cases by the court in Celle, which followed the request of the public prosecutor.

Specifically, he was found guilty of participating in murders in his country between 2003 and 2006, including that of a journalist, Deyda Hydara, Shot dead on December 16, 2004.

The man was a driver for the Junglers, a Gambian death squad created by the ruling government in the mid-1990s to intimidate or eliminate any form of opposition.