US court jails Gambian man over 67 years for role in Jammeh-era torture
Michael Sang Correa, 46, was convicted in April by a Colorado jury for his role in brutal acts carried out in 2006 against individuals accused of plotting a coup against Jammeh.
A Gambian man linked to the feared paramilitary unit loyal to former dictator Yahya Jammeh has been sentenced in the United States to more than 67 years in prison after being found guilty of torture.
Michael Sang Correa, 46, was convicted in April by a Colorado jury for his role in brutal acts carried out in 2006 against individuals accused of plotting a coup against Jammeh.
The U.S. Justice Department said Correa participated in beatings, flesh burning and other forms of torture while serving in the unit.
Senior Judge Christine Arguello of the District of Colorado handed down a sentence of 810 months after Correa was convicted on one count of conspiracy to commit torture and five counts of torture.
The case is the first criminal trial linked to the Junglers, a shadowy armed wing under Jammeh’s rule that rights groups and victims say was notorious for extrajudicial killings and torture.
Jammeh, who seized power in 1994 and held it until losing elections in 2016, has denied accusations of torture during his presidency.
Correa was arrested in 2020 under a U.S. law that makes it a crime to commit torture abroad. His trial shed light on the operations of the Junglers, who were an offshoot of the Gambian army and answered directly to Jammeh.
According to survivors, suspected coup plotters and other critics of Jammeh were often taken to the National Intelligence Agency near Banjul, where a secret torture chamber was used to inflict electric shocks, beatings and acid burns.
Rights advocates have long described the Junglers as an instrument of fear in Gambia, especially after the failed 2006 coup attempt, when persecution of opponents and dissenters intensified.
