World leaders have condemned an attack on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is in a “life-threatening condition” after being shot.

The prime minister was shot “multiple times” on Wednesday in an “assassination attempt”, a statement on his official social media page said.

The 59-year-old leader was shot in the abdomen in the central town of Handlova. Police sealed off the scene, and a suspect has been detained, according to local media reports.

Here are some of the global reactions:

United States President Joe Biden

Biden condemned the shooting as a “horrific act of violence”, adding that he and first lady Jill Biden “are praying for a swift recovery, and our thoughts are with his family and the people of Slovakia”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin said the attack was a “monstrous crime”.

“There can be no justification for this monstrous crime. I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-minded man. I very much hope that these qualities will help him to survive this difficult situation,” Putin said.

The Russian leader wished Fico “a speedy and full recovery”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

Guterres decried the “shocking attack carried out today against the prime minister of Slovakia”, his office said.

Guterres’s “thoughts are with the prime minister and his loved ones at this difficult moment”, his spokesman Farhan Haq said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

“I strongly condemn the vile attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico. Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good. My thoughts are with PM Fico, his family,” von der Leyen said.

French President Emmanuel Macron

Macron said on social media that he was “shocked” by the attack.

“Shocked by the shooting of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. I strongly condemn this attack,” he said. “My thoughts and solidarity are with him, his family and the people of Slovakia.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Scholz decried the “cowardly” attack and denounced “violence” in European politics.

“I am deeply shocked by the news of the cowardly attack on Slovakian Prime Minister Fico,” Scholz said.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg

Stoltenberg said his thoughts were with Fico and the people of Slovakia.

“I wish him strength for a speedy recovery. My thoughts are with Robert Fico, his loved ones and the people of Slovakia,” he said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Meloni decried the attack and “all forms of violence” on “democracy and freedom”.

“I learned with deep shock the news of the cowardly attack,” Meloni said in a statement. She also stressed her government’s “strongest condemnation of all forms of violence and attacks on the cardinal principles of democracy and freedom”.

Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The ministry said in a statement that it “condemns the assassination attempt against the prime minister of the Slovak Republic” and “wishes [him] good health and a speedy recovery”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

Orban decried the “heinous” attack against Fico.

“I was deeply shocked by the heinous attack against my friend, Prime Minister Robert Fico. We pray for his health and quick recovery! God bless him and his country!” Orban said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic

Vucic said Fico was a “great friend” and he would pray for his health.

“I am shocked by the attempted assassination of Robert Fico, a great friend to me and to Serbia. Dear friend, I pray for you and for your health,” Vucic said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez

Sanchez said he was “horrified” by the attack and “nothing can every justify violence”.

“Horrified and outraged at the attack on the Slovak Prime Minister. Spain stands with Robert Fico, his family and the Slovak people at this extremely difficult time. Nothing can ever justify violence,” he wrote on social media.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer

Nehammer said he was shocked at the attack and warned “hatred and violence must not take hold in our democracies”.

“The attempt on the life of my Slovak colleague Robert Fico shocks me deeply. Just a few days ago we spoke on the phone and talked intensively about security issues. I wish him a speedy and complete recovery! Hatred and violence must not take hold in our democracies and must be fought with all determination!” Nehammer said on social media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Zelenskyy condemned the attack and warned that violence should not become normalised.

“We strongly condemn this act of violence against our neighbouring partner state’s head of government. Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Erdogan “strongly” condemned “the heinous assassination attempt”.

“I extend my get-well wishes to the people and government of Slovakia on behalf of my country and nation,” Erdogan said and wished him a speedy recovery.

• Switzerland’s top criminal court convicted former Gambian Interior Minister Ousman Sonko of crimes against humanity.
• Sonko has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in repression under ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh.
• Sonko, who served from 2006 to 2016, faced charges including homicide, torture and false imprisonment.

Switzerland’s top criminal court on Wednesday convicted a former interior minister of Gambia for crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 20 years over his role in repression committed by the west African country’s security forces under its longtime dictator, a legal advocacy group said.

Prosecutors had been seeking a life sentence for Ousman Sonko, Gambia’s interior minister from 2006 to 2016 under then-President Yahya Jammeh, TRIAL International said.

The Federal Criminal Court in the southern town of Bellinzona ruled that Sonko’s crimes — including homicide, torture and false imprisonment — amounted to crimes against humanity. However, they did not rise to “aggravated” cases that could have brought the maximum penalty of life behind bars, according to several lawyers who attended the trial.

SENEGAL’S OPPOSITION LEADER OUSMANE SONKO TO ADDRESS SUPPORTERS AFTER MONTHS IN PRISON

The trial, which began in January, was hailed by advocacy groups as a watershed application of the principle of “universal jurisdiction,” which allows for the prosecution of serious crimes committed abroad.

Activists and legal experts say the verdict could send a message to Jammeh, who fled Gambia and remains in exile in Equatorial Guinea.

Sonko, who was in the courtroom for Wednesday’s reading of the verdict, offered little reaction when a translation was read out in English, said TRIAL International’s legal adviser Benoit Meystre, who also attended the proceedings.

Sonko applied for asylum in Switzerland in November 2016 and was arrested two months later. The Swiss attorney general’s office said his indictment, filed a year ago, covered alleged crimes during 16 years under Jammeh, whose rule was marked by arbitrary detention, sexual abuse and extrajudicial killings.

TOP SENEGALESE OPPOSITION LEADER FREED FROM JAIL AS ELECTION NEARS

Sonko was accused of supporting, participating in and failing to stop attacks against opponents in Gambia, an English-speaking West African country surrounded by neighboring Senegal. The crimes included killings, torture, rape and numerous unlawful detentions, prosecutors said.

“This unprecedented conviction based on universal jurisdiction in Europe is the confirmation that no one is above the reach of justice,” Meystre said in a text message. “Even the most powerful figures can be brought to account for their participation in mass atrocities.”

Madi MK Ceesay, an award-winning journalist who was once arrested under Sonko’s orders and who testified in the trial, told The Associated Press the proceedings showed that “no matter what, the long arm of justice can always catch the perpetrator.”

Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer who attended the trial, said Sonko’s conviction was a pivotal step toward justice for Jammeh’s victims.

“The long arm of the law is catching up with Yahya Jammeh’s accomplices all around the world, and hopefully will soon catch up with Jammeh himself,” he said.

Sonko was convicted of homicide, torture and false imprisonment as crimes against humanity, while rape charges against him were dropped, Brody wrote on X.

Outside the courtroom, Olimatou Sonko, the defendant’s daughter, told Swiss public broadcaster SRF “it isn’t fair” that the full proceedings of the trial weren’t translated to English from German, which her father doesn’t understand.

Philip Grant, executive director at TRIAL International, which filed the Swiss case against Ousman Sonko before his arrest, said he was the highest-level former official ever to be put on trial in Europe under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Sonko, who joined the Gambian military in 1988, was appointed commander of the State Guard in 2003, a position in which he was responsible for Jammeh’s security, Swiss prosecutors said. He was made inspector general of the Gambian police in 2005.

He was removed as interior minister in September 2016, a few months before the end of Jammeh’s government, and left Gambia to seek asylum in Europe.

Ousman Sonko is not to be confused with leading politician Ousmane Sonko in Senegal, who spells his first name slightly differently.

Jammeh seized control in a 1994 coup. He lost Gambia’s 2016 presidential election but refused to concede defeat to Adama Barrow, and ultimately fled amid threats of a regional military intervention to force him from power.

“The verdict against Ousman Sonko is a milestone in the fight against impunity and a historic success for universal jurisdiction in Switzerland and Europe,” Amnesty Switzerland wrote on X. “Even former ministers can be prosecuted! Victims and their families finally see justice.”