Gambian ex-soldier convicted of torture in Denver trial

A former army member in Gambia was sentenced in Denver on Tuesday for charges that he tortured people suspected of participation in a failed coup against the lifelong dictator of the country of Western Africa almost 20 years ago.

Michael Sang Correa was accused of torturing five men who believe they are opponents of Yahya Jammeh after a failed plot to get him out of power in 2006.

A jury that heard the case in the United States District Court in Denver found Correa guilty of torturing people. He was also accused of conspiring with others to commit a torture while serving in a military unit known as the “Junglers”, who directly informed Jammeh, in the last international trial linked to his regime.

Correa arrived in the United States in 2016 to work as bodyguard for Jammeh, and finally settled in Denver, where prosecutors said he worked as a daily worker. Correa, that prosecutors say that he exceeded his visa after the expulsion of Jammeh in 2017, was accused in 2020 under a rarely used law that allows people to be tried in the United States judicial system for torture allegedly committed abroad.

The survivors traveled from Gambia, Europe and other parts of the United States to testify, telling the jury that they were tortured by methods such as being electrocuted and hung upside down while they were beaten. Some had plastic bags on their heads.

The prosecutors showed the photos of the jury of the victims with scars left by objects that include a bayonet, a burning cigarette and strings. The men who roll the scars in the photos were asked and explained how they received them.

The defense had argued that Correa was a low -ranking private that risked torture and death if it disobeyed the superiors and that he did not have the option to participate, much less a decision to make a conspiracy.

But while the United States government agreed that there is evidence that Junglers lived with “constant fear”, prosecutors said some Junglers refused to participate in torture.