Gambian man sentenced to more than 67 years after US conviction for torture

A Gambian man who was part of an armed unit run by former dictator Yahya Jammeh and was convicted of torture by a U.S. jury in April has been sentenced to more than 67 years in prison, the U.S. Justice Department, opens new tab said on Friday.

A Colorado jury convicted the Gambian national, Michael Sang Correa, for his participation in the torture of numerous victims in Gambia in 2006, including beating and flesh burning, because of the victims' purported involvement in a coup plot against the then-president, the Justice Department said.

Correa, 46, was sentenced to 810 months in prison by Senior Judge Christine Arguello for the District of Colorado after conviction on one count of conspiracy to commit torture and five counts of torture, the department said in a statement.

The case marked the first criminal prosecution over involvement in the feared armed group known as "the Junglers", which operated in Gambia's police state during Jammeh's rule. The former president seized power in 1994 and foiled several attempts to overthrow him before he lost a 2016 election.

Correa was arrested in 2020 under a law which makes it a crime for anyone in the U.S. to commit torture abroad.

The Junglers were a secretive offshoot of the Gambian army that took orders from Jammeh. Rights groups and former victims say they carried out brutalities that worsened after a failed coup in 2006.

Suspected coup plotters and other outspoken opponents of Jammeh were taken to the National Intelligence Agency near one of the capital Banjul's white sand beaches, according to victims.

Some found themselves in a torture chamber where they were subjected to electric shocks, beatings and burning with acid, they said.