A former Gambian soldier has been convicted on torture charges by a US court for his involvement in crimes committed while feared strongman Yahya Jammeh was in power in the West African country.
Michael Sang Correa was found guilty of being part of a conspiracy to commit torture against suspected opponents while serving under a military unit known as the “Junglers”.
“The torture inflicted by Michael Sang Correa and his co-conspirators is abhorrent,” the Justice Department said.
It follows a week-long trial in Denver, Colorado, under a rarely used law that prosecutes crimes committed outside the US.
Correa was first detained in the US in 2019 for overstaying his visa, three years after settling in Denver where he reportedly worked as a day labourer.
The 46-year-old was charged in 2020 with torture and conspiracy to commit the torture of at least six people in The Gambia under a seldom-used law that allows people to be tried by the US judicial system for torture allegedly committed abroad.
He is the first non-US citizen to be convicted on torture charges in a federal district court for crimes committed overseas, according to the Department of Justice. The law has only been used twice since it was enacted in 1994 but both of the previous cases were brought against US citizens.
The Department of Justice said Correa “tried to evade responsibility for his crimes in The Gambia by coming to the US and hiding his past”.
“But we found him, we investigated him,” said Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
The evidence at trial showed that Correa and his fellow Junglers tortured five people accused of plotting a coup against Jammeh.
The victims, including high-profile members of Jammeh’s inner circle who fell out with him, told the jury how they were tortured by being electrocuted and smothered with plastic bags.
“Correa and his co-conspirators beat, stabbed, burned, and electrocuted the victims,” the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors on Tuesday said Correa “played an integral role in inflicting this torture on the victims”.
He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each of the five torture counts and the count of conspiracy to commit torture, the Justice Department said.
His lawyers had argued that Correa was a low-ranking soldier who only obeyed orders from his superiors.
But while the jury agreed that there was evidence that the Junglers lived in “constant fear,” prosecutors said at trial that some Junglers had refused to obey orders to torture victims.
“This conviction sends a clear message that perpetrators of human rights violations cannot escape accountability, regardless of where they commit their crimes,” said Sirra Ndow, chairperson of the Alliance of Victim-Led Organisations in The Gambia, (AVLO).
Jammeh, who seized power in 1994, foiled several attempts to overthrow him before he lost an election in 2016 to Adama Barrow in a surprise defeat.
His rule was characterised by allegations of human rights abuses and state repression, which he denied.
He went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after his defeat, though he remains an influential figure in The Gambia.
A Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), held between 2019 and 2021, unearthed the crimes committed under Jammeh and recommended prosecution for those who were involved.
Last year, Jammeh’s former interior minister was sentenced to 20 years in jail by a Swiss court for crimes against humanity.
