Michael Sang Correa, 45, is an alleged member of a former Gambian dictator’s notorious death squad whose members have confessed to committing torture and other serious human rights abuses. Following a failed coup d’état in 2006, the Junglers tortured suspected coup members and extracted forced confessions. Survivors of this torture testified at Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC) that Correa personally tortured them or was present while other Junglers engaged in torture.
Justice Christine Arguello is a federal judge at the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.
Judge Arguello has decided that she will conduct jury selection on Monday in the ceremonial courtroom (2d floor). There will be space for the public inside the courtroom for those who want to attend.
Michael Correa, 41, was an alleged member of this notorious death squad whose members have confessed to committing torture and other serious human rights abuses. Following a failed coup d’état in 2006, the Junglers tortured suspected coup members and extracted forced confessions. Survivors of this torture testified at Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC) that Correa personally tortured them or was present while other Junglers engaged in torture.
Justice Christine M. Arguello is a federal judge in the United States District of Colorado.
The proceedings will be held in Judge Arguello’s courtroom on the 6th floor (Courtroom A602), and there will be opening statements. The first Gambian government witness is expected to give testimony.
In 2006, The Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency’s report on interrogations following the attempted coup also implicated Correa in torture. Former Junglers told the TRRC that Correa not only tortured individuals suspected of planning the coup but also participated in numerous other extrajudicial killings, including the killing of journalists Dayda Hydara and Chief Ebrima Manneh in 2012 and the murder of Gambian-Americans Alhagie Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe in 2013.
On September 17, 2019, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested Correa in Denver, Colorado, for overstaying his visa. Following news of his detention, a coalition of human rights organizations and Correa’s victims, including CJA, the African Network Against Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances, the Gambia Center for Victims of Human Rights Violations, the Guernica Centre for International Justice, Human Rights Watch, the Solo Sandeng Foundation, and TRIAL International called on the United States to investigate the credible allegations of grave international crimes committed by Correa in Gambia. On February 18, 2020, U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy and Richard Durbin also urged the government to investigate Correa and, if warranted, to prosecute him in the United States.
