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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday they were greatly concerned about the welfare of Gambia's national Olympic chief who was sentenced to death last month for plotting to overthrow the government.
Lang Tombong Tamba, former Chief of Defence Staff and head of Gambia's national Olympic Committee, was one of eight people sentenced to death after a court in Gambia found them guilty of plotting a coup in the West African country.
"We are currently looking into this matter and we are clearly concerned by reports reaching us from Gambia," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
"It appears that this decision has been taken by the courts there and, whilst the IOC must not interfere in the internal affairs of nations, the personal welfare of Mr Lang Tombong Tamba obviously concerns us greatly."
Gambia last carried out the death penalty in 1981 before capital punishment was abolished. President Yahya Jammeh reintroduced it in 1995 after seizing power in the former British colony, but no prisoners have so far been executed.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Editing by Clare Fallon)
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