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

A former member of the military in Gambia was convicted in Denver on Tuesday of charges that he tortured people suspected of involvement in a failed coup against the West African country’s longtime dictator nearly 20 years ago.

Michael Sang Correa was charged with torturing five men believed to be opponents of Yahya Jammeh following an unsuccessful plot to remove him from power in 2006.

A jury that heard the case in U.S. District Court in Denver found Correa guilty of torturing people. He also was charged with conspiring with others to commit torture while serving in a military unit known as the “Junglers,” which reported directly to Jammeh, in the latest international trial tied to his regime.

Correa came to the U.S. in 2016 to work as a bodyguard for Jammeh, eventually settling in Denver, where prosecutors said he worked as a day laborer. Correa, who prosecutors say overstayed his visa after Jammeh’s ouster in 2017, was indicted in 2020 under a rarely used law that allows people to be tried in the U.S. judicial system for torture allegedly committed abroad.

Survivors traveled from Gambia, Europe and elsewhere in the U.S. to testify, telling the jury they were tortured by methods such as being electrocuted and hung upside down while being beaten. Some had plastic bags put over their heads.

Prosecutors showed the jury photos of victims with scars left by objects including a bayonet, a burning cigarette and ropes. The men were asked to circle scars on photos and explain how they received them.

The defense had argued Correa was a low-ranking private who risked torture and death himself if he disobeyed superiors and that he did not have a choice about whether to participate, let alone a decision to make about whether to join a conspiracy.

But while the U.S. government agreed that there’s evidence that the Junglers lived in “constant fear,” prosecutors said some Junglers refused to participate in the torture.