Michael Sang Correa, 46, is from the Gambia, the smallest country in Africa. The country’s western part is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the other sides are surrounded by Senegal.
From November 6, 1996 to January 19, 2017, Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh served as the second president of the Gambia. Born in Kanilai Village, The Gambia, he turned 59 on May 25, 2024.
The Junglers
Correa is a former member of a Gambian armed unit called the Junglers. In 2006, he conspired with others to commit torture against individuals suspected of plotting a failed coup attempt against Jammeh.
While the Junglers were composed of individuals selected from the ranks of the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF), they operated outside the regular GAF chain of command. They received orders from Jammeh and answered to him.
In 2016, Jammeh lost the presidential election in the Gambia and initially refused to step down and in 2017, he went into exile in Equatorial Guinea. In 2021, a truth commission in the Gambia urged the government to prosecute the perpetrators of crimes committed under his regime.
In 2023, a court in Germany convicted a member of the Junglers of murder and crimes against humanity. In 2024, a court in Switzerland sentenced Jammeh’s former interior minister to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
Michael Sang Correa
In March 2006, the government of the Gambia learned that individuals within the country were trying to overthrow the government. Suspects were arrested, interrogated and subjected to severe physical and mental abuses.
From that month to April 2006, Correa and his co-conspirators allegedly severely and repeatedly beat their victims with their boots, feet and fists and objects including branches, plastic pipes and wires. Some victims were reportedly subjected to electrocution on various parts of their bodies and had molten plastic or acid dripped on their bodies.
In some instances, the torturers allegedly covered the victims’ heads with plastic bags, which restricted the victims’ ability to breathe. The torturers are accused of severely beating one victim who was suspended over the ground in a rice bag.
One of the victims is Dr. Jaye Ceesay and Olay Jabbi‘s brother was killed allegedly by the Junglers after he returned to the Gambia in 2013 to start a computer school for children.
In 2016, Correa came to the United States to work as a bodyguard for Jammeh. Eventually, Correa settled in Denver, Colorado, USA where he worked as a day laborer and overstayed his visa.
In 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Correa. In 2020, he was indicted under a U.S. law that allows people to be tried in the country’s judicial system for torture allegedly committed outside the country.
On June 2, 2020, Correa was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture and six counts of inflicting torture on specific individuals. On June 11, 2020, he was arrested and he made his first court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter.
On April 15, 2025, Correa was convicted in federal court in Denver of torturing five people in the Gambia. He was found guilty of being part of a conspiracy to to commit torture against suspected opponents while he was a member of the Junglers.
This is the first time a non-U.S. citizen was convicted in a federal district court in the U.S. on torture charges
CONAN Daily 