A Gambian man in federal custody in Denver has been indicted here on charges of torturing people in his home country at the direction of that nation’s then-president..
Michael Sang Correa, 41, appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court and was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture and six counts of inflicting torture on specific victims, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
Correa, a former member of a Gambian armed unit known as the Junglers, conspired with others in 2006 to torture people suspected of plotting an attempted coup against Gambia’s then-President Yahya Jammeh. Correa and others received orders directly from Jammeh, according to a grand jury indictment in the case.
“As federal prosecutors, our mission is to seek out injustice and to hold accountable those who perpetuate it, regardless of where it occurs,” said U.S. Attorney Jason R. Dunn. “With this arrest, we are not only holding accountable a man who has allegedly committed horrific acts of torture against his own people, but demonstrating to the people of The Gambia, and indeed the entire world, that the United States stands for the rule of law and against those who abuse human rights.”
At a news conference in Denver on Thursday, Dunn said the alleged torture included beatings with weapons, stabbings, plastic hoods being placed over victims’ heads and burns with cigarettes and electrical currents. Some victims’ eyes were burned with cigarettes and some victims’ testicles were electrocuted. Some victims had molten plastic or acid dripped on their bodies.
Dunn said prosecutors are using a federal statute that allows foreign nationals suspected of committing torture in a foreign country to be prosecuted in the United States.
Jammeh, who rose to power in Gambia in a 1994 coup, fled the country in 2017 amid sexual abuse and rape allegations among a long list of other alleged crimes.
In 2016, before Jammeh’s fall, Correa had escorted the vice president of Gambia to New York for a United Nations event, Dunn said. Correa never returned to his country. Instead, he overstayed his visa and disappeared, winding up in Denver, where he was recently working as a day laborer.
When arrested in 2019 on an immigration charge, Correa surrendered without incident.
His alleged crimes are “especially heinous and gruesome in nature, the victims deserve justice,” said U.S. Department of Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge Eric Balliet. “We’re here to insure he is held accountable.”
Investigators, in part, followed communications and financial trails in tracking down Correa, Balliet said. At one point, Correa was joined by his wife in the United States, although they are no longer a couple.
Authorities said he was leading a quiet, routine life in Denver prior to his arrest.
