Gambian ex-soldier convicted in Denver trial of torturing suspected backers of failed 2006 coup

A former member of the navy in Gambia was convicted in Denver on Tuesday of fees that he tortured individuals suspected of involvement in a failed coup in opposition to the West African nation’s longtime dictator practically 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 known as 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 stated he labored as a day laborer. Correa, who prosecutors say overstayed his visa after Jammeh’s ouster in 2017, was indicted in 2020 below 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 similar to being electrocuted and hung the other way up whereas being crushed. Some had plastic baggage put over their heads.

Prosecutors confirmed the jury photographs 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 photographs and clarify how they obtained them.

The protection had argued Correa was a low-ranking personal who risked torture and demise 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 hitch a conspiracy.

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