Two United States senators have called on the US Justice Department to prosecute Michael Sang Correa, a member of former President Yahya Jammeh’s hit squad, The Junglers, who is currently detained in the United States on immigration offences.
Michael Correa, 40, who has been living in the US since September 2016 was arrested in Aurora, Colorado, in September 2019 by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying his visa.
He later applied for political for asylum, which was unsuccessful and he has been ordered to be removed from the United States.
But Senators Patrick Leahy Senator of Vermont and Richard Durbin of Illinois say they want Correa to be prosecuted in the US rather than being deported to Gambia for his active role in the torture and enforced disappearance of civilians during the Jammeh regime.
In a Letter to Attorney General William Barr and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, the senators there is compelling evidence that Correa may have been responsible for heinous atrocities including the torture and extra-judicial killings of two Gambian born naturalised US citizens, Alhagie Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe.
“These are criminal offences which the United States has jurisdiction to prosecute. We urge your agencies- which are responsible for bringing human rights violators to justice- to fully investigate the matter, and if warranted, prosecute Correa under US law,” Senators Leahy and Durbin wrote.
They added there is significant evidence of Mr Correa’s alleged crimes as a member of The Jungulars, responsible for the arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, enforced disappearance and extra judicial killings of persons considered to be opponents of the Jammeh regime including journalists, and ordinary civilians.
They said Correa and other members of The Jungulars were also responsible for arresting and torturing people suspected of taking part in an alleged coup plot against President Jammeh’s regime in March 2006.
They added: “Several survivors including one United States citizen have stated that Correa personally tortured them or was present while other Jungulars tortured them. Moreover, Alhaji Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe, both also United States citizens, were abducted, tortured, decapitated, dismembered and dumped in a well by the Jungulars in 2013
“Former Jungulars testified by the Gambian Truth, Reconciliation and Repatriation Commission that Correa conducted surveillance as part of the operation that resulted in Ceesay and Jobe’s abduction and gruesome murders.”
Senators Durbin and Leahy argued that the United States would send a strong signal that the United States will protect its own citizens and will not serve as a safe haven for those who committed human rights atrocities if it thoroughly investigates Correa’s alleged crimes and if warranted, prosecute him.
“Allowing Correa to be removed from the United States , on the other hand, would allow him to escape any kind of real accountability or justice. The Gambia’s minister of Justice recently acknowledged that his country does not yet have the capacity to fully investigate and prosecute the Jungulars for their heinous crimes, given the magnitude of the undertaking,” they further argued.
“The United States is a leading champion of human rights around the world. Living up to that role requires that we do not only promote human rights abroad, but also hold human rights violators in our midst.”
The Jungulars were used by former President Jammeh to carryout torture and extra-judicial killings of his opponents and critics during his 22-year long rule in the small West African nation.
Several members of the team have revealed at the truth commission how they carried out several killings on the former president’s orders including the shooting and killing of Journalist Deyda Hydara of The Point Newspaper, suffocation of nine death row inmates with plastic bags, beheading and mutilation of two Gambian born naturalised US citizens, Alhagie Mamut Ceesay and Ebou Jobe, who went missing while on a trip to the Gambia in June 2013, and the execution of 45 Europe-bound migrants comprising nationals from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo trying to get to Europe.
Four members of The Jungulars, Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow, Pa Ousman Sanneh and Amadou Badgie were arrested following the fall of the Jammeh regime in 2017 were released last summer after they gave evidence at the truth commission.
