DENVER (KDVR) — A Gambian ex-soldier who was found guilty after a jury held in Denver was sentenced Friday to over six decades in prison for charges related to torture during a West African dictatorship in 2006.
Michael Sang Correa, 46, was sentenced Friday to 67 years and six months in prison after he was found guilty in April of one count of conspiracy to commit torture and five counts of torture.
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said Correa’s actions included burning victims with molten plastic and subjecting them to “repeated, vicious beatings over the course of weeks using a variety of weapons.”
“The victims of these crimes carried the weight of unimaginable suffering for years, not knowing whether they would ever see their torturer held accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly for the District of Colorado. “Today’s sentence delivers a measure of justice for them and affirms that the United States stands firmly with those whose human rights have been violated. This prosecution and sentence should serve as a deterrent for criminals who think they might escape accountability by coming to Colorado.”
Evidence was presented at trial showing that Correa was a member of an armed unit called the “Junglers,” which reported to The Gambia’s former president, 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 said 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, and both previous cases were brought against U.S. citizens. The U.S. Department of Justice called the verdict “the first conviction of a non-U.S. citizen on torture charges in a federal district court.”
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations’ Denver Field Office with support from agents in Senegal, as well as U.S. Embassy personnel in Banjul, Gambia. The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, established in 2009, supported the case. According to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado, the group furthers the government’s efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abusers in the U.S.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
