Denver, Colorado – The trial against Michael Sang Correa, ex-jungler that was recently postponed by court, is set to start on 7th April 2025, Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) said in its social media pages.
Correa was to stand trial on September 16, 2024, but got postponed on September 11the {this year}.
This comes when, Correa’s defence lawyers filed two motions with the court. The motions explained that the defence wanted to present testimony from two witnesses to support the argument that Correa was under duress when he committed the acts of torture alleged in the indictment.
According to the motions, the witnesses refused to travel to the United States unless the United States government provided them with immunity from prosecution.
The United States declined to offer that immunity.
The first motion asked the court to dismiss the case against Correa, arguing that the government was not facilitating the attendance of these witnesses.
On September 10, the court denied the motion to dismiss the charges against him. The second motionasked the court to delay the trial to allow Correa’s attorneys to travel to The Gambia to record sworn testimony from the two witnesses.
On September 11, the judge granted the second motion. She ruled that ensuring Correa the right to present witnesses for his defense was crucial to protecting his due process rights.
Due process rights are guaranteed under international law and the United States Constitution: they provide reasonable opportunity for defendants such as Correa to defend themselves against criminal charges, allow for thorough examination of the facts, and contribute to a fair and just legal process.
Meanwhile, the ex-jungler 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 Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.
The indictment alleges that following an attempted coup against Jammeh’s regime in 2006, Correa and other Junglers tortured suspected participants in the coup, which included beating them, suffocating them with plastic bags, and subjecting them to electric shocks.
The U.S. 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.
