By Omar Bah
Michael Sang Correa, an alleged member of a Gambian death squad, is scheduled to stand trial for torture starting on September 16, in Denver, Colorado, the Unted States, Trial International has announced.
This marks the first time a non-US citizen will stand trial in a US federal court for torture committed abroad.
Mr Correa is charged with six counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture. He is allegedly a former member of the Junglers, a notorious death squad in The Gambia operating under former President Yahya Jammeh.
The indictment alleges that following an attempted coup against Jammeh’s regime in March 2006, Mr Correa and other Junglers tortured suspected participants in the coup, including beating and suffocating them with plastic bags, and subjecting them to electric shocks.
The US government filed the charges under the Extraterritorial Torture Act, a criminal law which allows it to prosecute individuals found within the United States for acts of torture committed abroad. This case has drawn significant attention from human rights advocates and legal experts, as it is the first trial of a non-US citizen since the Torture Act was passed in 1994, and only the third trial under the Act.
A coalition of human rights organisations, including the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), representatives of the Alliance of Victim-Led Organisations (AVLO), and Trial International, played a crucial role in urging the United States to investigate allegations of international crimes attributed to Mr Correa in The Gambia. CJA represents several of Mr Correa’s alleged victims.
“The trial is a critical step towards securing truth and justice for victims of Jammeh’s dictatorship, which was characterised by widespread human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and arbitrary detention,” human rights groups said.
The trial is scheduled to take place from September 16 to 27 at the Alfred A Arraj United States Courthouse.
The University of Colorado Law School will provide publicly available trial monitoring updates. Representatives from Gambian civil society, including journalists and human rights advocates, will attend the trial in person and provide real-time updates for audiences in The Gambia.
