Gambian ex-soldier convicted at US trial of torturing suspected backers of a failed 2006 coup

DENVER — A former member of Gambia's military was convicted in federal court Tuesday of torturing five people accused of involvement in a failed coup against the West African country's longtime dictator nearly 20 years ago, capping a rare prosecution in the United States for torture committed abroad.

Jurors at the weeklong trial in Denver also found Michael Sang Correa guilty of being part of a conspiracy to commit torture against suspected opponents while serving in a military unit known as the ''Junglers,'' which reported directly to Yahya Jammeh.

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, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2019 and then indicted the following year under a seldom-used law that allows people to be tried in the U.S. judicial system for torture allegedly committed abroad.

The law has only been used twice since 1994 but both of the previous cases were brought against U.S. citizens. The U.S. Department of Justice said the verdict was ''the first conviction of a non-U.S. citizen on torture charges in a federal district court.''

''If you commit these atrocities in your country, don't come to the United States and seek refuge,'' said Steve Cagen, the head of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations' Denver office.

Demba Dem, a former member of the Gambian parliament who testified to being tortured by Correa and others, was among those in the packed courtroom to hear the verdict.

1. Dem and other 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 a bayonet, a burning cigarette, ropes and other objects. The men were asked to circle scars on photos and explain how they received them.

Members of the media from Gambia covered the trial in Denver and immigrants now living in the U.S. attended proceedings, including sisters Dr. Jaye Ceesay and Olay Jabbi. They said their brother was killed by Junglers after returning to Gambia in 2013 to start a computer school for children there and they wanted to support others victimized by the regime.

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. One of his lawyers declined to comment after the verdict.

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

Jammeh has been accused of ordering opponents tortured, jailed and killed during his more than 22-year rule of Gambia, a country surrounded by Senegal except for a small Atlantic coastline. He lost the 2016 presidential election and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea in 2017 after initially refusing to step down.

In 2021, a truth commission in Gambia urged that the perpetrators of crimes committed under Jammeh's regime be prosecuted by the government. Other countries have also tried people connected with his rule.

Last year, Jammeh's former interior minister was sentenced to 20 years behind bars by a Swiss court for crimes against humanity. In 2023, a German court convicted a Gambian man who was also a member of the Junglers of murder and crimes against humanity for involvement in the killing of government critics in Gambia.

Human rights activists in Gambia hope those who committed torture under Jammeh's regime will also be held accountable at home.

"Correa's conviction is very significant in the quest for justice for victims of human rights violations, but many Junglers and other human rights abusers continue living in impunity. Some are even living freely in Banjul,'' said Kadijatou Kuyateh, spokesperson for the Alliance of Victim-Led Organisations, referring to Gambia's capital.