A U.S. federal jury in Colorado has convicted Gambian national Michael Sang Correa for his role in the torture of detainees in 2006, marking the first time a non-American has been found guilty under the U.S. Torture Act for crimes committed abroad, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
Correa, a former member of the feared Gambian paramilitary unit known as the “Junglers,” operated under the regime of ex-president Yahya Jammeh. During the trial, witnesses recounted how Correa participated in the torture of five individuals suspected of plotting a coup against Jammeh. The abuses described included electrocution, stabbing, burning, and severe beatings.
Following a week-long trial in Denver, the jury found Correa guilty on multiple counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture, under 18 USC § 2340A — a law that criminalizes acts of torture carried out inside or outside the United States.
Correa entered the U.S. in 2016 and worked as a day laborer until his 2019 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying his visa. In 2020, he was formally charged in federal court in Colorado.
The Justice Department stated that Correa faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the five counts of torture and one count of conspiracy. He remains in custody as he awaits sentencing by a federal district judge at a date yet to be determined.
Correa’s conviction shines renewed light on the Jammeh regime’s history of human rights abuses. Jammeh, who seized power in 1994, was widely accused of overseeing a state apparatus responsible for forced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests, often targeting journalists, students, civil servants, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
In 2015, Human Rights Watch documented widespread abuses by both the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Jammeh’s loyalist paramilitaries, including the Junglers.
Efforts to bring those responsible to justice continue. In December, the Gambian Ministry of Justice announced that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Jammeh and his associates.