Eccentric African despot sets deadline for execution of every death row prisoner America, Britain and the European Union have all urged Mr Jammeh to show clemency. But Lamin Jobarteh, the Gambian justice minister, has insisted that all executions will be carried out regardless of international pressure. The minister explained that Mr Jammeh had "sworn on the Koran before the whole world to execute murderers according to the laws of the land." Mr Jobarteh added: "Allah entrusted this position to Yahya Jammeh and anybody who is averse to the decree of Allah can bite their nose." Most of those on death row are believed to be officials and soldiers from the previous regime that Mr Jammeh overthrew in a military coup in 1994. The leader who insists on being known as both "professor" and "doctor" left school at 16 with an "O" Level in Geography and four other subjects. Mr Jammeh's path to the presidency was entirely accidental. His predecessor, Sir Dawda Jamara, fled Gambia as soon as the military takeover began - and Mr Jammeh, then a 29-year-old Lieutenant, was the first army officer to reach the presidential palace in Banjul. He duly seized the opportunity to declare himself president. Since then, Mr Jammeh's rule over the former British colony has become steadily more eccentric. One United Nations official based in West Africa privately questioned the president's sanity. In 2007, Mr Jammeh announced that a potion of his own concoction, made from local herbs, was an infallible cure for Aids. A group of HIV-positive Gambians was duly persuaded to abandon the anti-retroviral drugs that delay the onset of the syndrome and adopt the president's treatment instead. Their fate is unknown. In 2009, Mr Jammeh announced that "witchcraft" had caused the death of his aunt. The security forces promptly rounded up about 1,000 supposed "witches" across Gambia, locking them up for beatings and torture and forcing them to drink hallucinogenic potions. Several hundred are believed to have endured this ordeal at the president's personal farm. Nonetheless, Gambia remains a member of the Commonwealth, with Mr Jammeh entitled to attend the biannual conference, which is always opened by the Queen. Earlier this year, he declared that his critics could "go to hell," saying: "Those who accuse me of human rights abuses, I leave them to Allah."