Opening statements are expected on Tuesday in the U.S. federal trial of Michael Sang Correa, a Gambian national accused of torturing political opponents of former Gambian military dictator Yahya Jammeh nearly two decades ago. The case marks a rare application of a U.S. law permitting prosecution for acts of torture committed abroad.
Correa, who was indicted in 2020 while residing in the United States, is charged with participating in the brutal repression of individuals suspected of involvement in a failed 2006 coup attempt in Gambia. Prosecutors allege Correa was a member of the notorious “Junglers,” a military unit that reported directly to Jammeh and carried out systemic abuses on his orders.
According to the indictment, Correa and his co-conspirators beat detainees with pipes and wires, suffocated them with plastic bags, and administered electric shocks, including to their genitals. The torture was allegedly used to extract information and punish perceived opponents of the regime.
Federal prosecutors are relying on a little-used statute in the U.S. legal code that enables prosecution for acts of torture committed overseas, regardless of the defendant’s citizenship. Correa is only the third individual ever tried under this law.
His defense team plans to argue that Correa acted under duress and had no choice but to follow orders. Court documents indicate that members of the Junglers who defied Jammeh’s directives often faced death.
Jammeh ruled Gambia with an iron fist for 22 years, during which time he was widely accused of orchestrating torture, extrajudicial killings, and political imprisonment. He lost the 2016 presidential election and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after initially refusing to relinquish power.
Correa entered the U.S. in December 2016 as part of Jammeh’s security detail. After Jammeh fell from power, Correa remained in the country, overstaying his visa and eventually settling in Denver, where he worked as a day laborer.
Human Rights Watch notes that Correa’s trial is part of a growing trend of international accountability for crimes committed under Jammeh’s rule. In 2023, a German court convicted another member of the Junglers for murder and crimes against humanity. Similarly, Switzerland sentenced Jammeh’s former interior minister to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity last year.
In previous U.S. cases under the same torture statute, Charles “Chuckie” Taylor Jr., the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, was convicted in 2008 for acts committed in Liberia. More recently, in 2023, Pennsylvania resident Ross Roggio was convicted for torturing an employee in Iraq while overseeing an illegal weapons factory.
Correa’s trial is being closely watched by international human rights advocates and may set further precedent in the global effort to hold perpetrators of state-sponsored violence accountable—no matter where the crimes occurred.
