Gambian ex-soldier convicted of torture in Denver trial

A former member of the military in Gambia was convicted in Denver on Tuesday of expenses that he tortured individuals suspected of involvement in a failed coup towards the West African nation’s longtime dictator almost 20 years in the past.

Michael Sang Correa was charged with torturing 5 males believed to be opponents of Yahya Jammeh following an unsuccessful plot to take away him from energy in 2006.

A jury that heard the case in U.S. District Courtroom in Denver discovered Correa responsible of torturing individuals. He additionally was charged with conspiring with others to commit torture whereas serving in a navy unit often called the “Junglers,” which reported on to Jammeh, within the newest worldwide trial tied to his regime.

Correa got here to the U.S. in 2016 to work as a bodyguard for Jammeh, ultimately settling in Denver, the place prosecutors mentioned he labored as a day laborer. Correa, who prosecutors say overstayed his visa after Jammeh’s ouster in 2017, was indicted in 2020 beneath a hardly ever used regulation that permits individuals to be tried within the U.S. judicial system for torture allegedly dedicated overseas.

Survivors traveled from Gambia, Europe and elsewhere within the U.S. to testify, telling the jury they had been tortured by strategies equivalent to being electrocuted and hung the other way up whereas being overwhelmed. Some had plastic baggage put over their heads.

Prosecutors confirmed the jury images of victims with scars left by objects together with a bayonet, a burning cigarette and ropes. The lads had been requested to circle scars on images and clarify how they acquired them.

The protection had argued Correa was a low-ranking personal who risked torture and dying himself if he disobeyed superiors and that he didn’t have a alternative about whether or not to take part, not to mention a call to make about whether or not to affix a conspiracy.

However whereas the U.S. authorities agreed that there’s proof that the Junglers lived in “fixed concern,” prosecutors mentioned some Junglers refused to take part within the torture.