Three men charged with sedition in The Gambia have been tortured, AFP news agency quotes their lawyer as saying.

Defence lawyer Abdoulie Fatty said in court that the three men were beaten, threatened at gunpoint and forced to thumbprint confessions that were either dictated to them or written on their behalf.

Ebrima Keita, Musa Fofana and Alasanna Jallow could face two years in jail.

They are accused of saying President Yahya Jammeh disliked the country’s majority ethnic group, the Mandinkas.
A few weeks after their arrests, Mr Jammeh threatened to “wipe out” Mandinkas in a speech, accusing them of trying to destabilise the country by joining protests organised by the opposition.