The long-awaited truth, reconciliation and reparations commission is also expected to be officially launched next week.

“We are aware that there will be reparations for the truth commission. So my clients will join the queue,” said Gaye. “When we have a judgment in our favour, we will go after the assets.”

In an interview earlier this year, Jatta say she had been “silently tortured”, even after the “treatment” was over.

“He said: ‘If you test for HIV and you have it, I’ll know you’ve been infected again. If I hear of it, I’ll lock you up.’ He thought he was God, while he was just a mere human being like us,” said Jatta.

Ousman Sowe, Lamin Ceesay and Fatou Jatta were among the first Gambians who joined his HIV/AIDS treatment programme in 2007, where they were forced to give up anti-retroviral drugs and drink home-made potions that made them vomit.

Their health worsened, while others in the programme died.

“I believe it is my responsibility to hold Jammeh to account,” said Sowe, a former university lecturer in his 60s.

“I knew that one day the real story would be told.”

People were afraid to criticise the president when he was in power, the victims said, so doctors and patients publicly declared that his medicines were working.

The programme hampered real HIV/AIDS work in Gambia, which trails behind other African countries in treatment rates, according to the U.N. agency UNAIDS.

It also worsened stigma against people with HIV and stripped them of dignity, said survivors. Sometimes Jammeh would rub ointment on their bodies in sessions that were broadcast on television.

Afterwards, they lost their jobs and struggled to rent houses since their faces were recognisable, they said.

“Jammeh must pay for what he has done to us,” said Ceesay.

The victims are seeking financial damages for harm suffered and a declaration that their human rights were violated, said Saramba Kandeh, a legal associate at AIDS-Free World.

Jammeh will be tried in absentia and can be represented if he wants, she said.