Denver, Colorado, US- The historic trial of an alleged former death squad member in the US state of Colorado has reached its climax as Michael Sang Correa’s fate is being determined by a jury which is deliberating.
Witness hearings have been concluded and the jury is now making its decision. The prosecution yesterday continued with questioning former retired special agent Barton Garrison, who had investigated and arrested Correa in 2019.
Correa stated he never participated in tortures during his interview with federal agents but, while fighting his deportation at the immigration court, he admitted to participating in the torture of one person.
On Thursday, the court heard an audio recording of Correa’s interview with federal agents where he testified that his only job following the March 2006 coup attempt was to arrest individuals implicated in the coup and take them to the National Intelligence Agency where the Junglers subjected them to gruesome torture.
The order to torture Pierre Mendy
During his testimony at the immigration court, the defendant testified that the first order he received following the failed coup attempt in 2006 was to arrest Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Jatta. Lt. Col. Jatta was a former Chief of Staff of the Gambia Armed Forces who passed away in 2008. He told the court that he and other Junglers went to Jatta’s home and arrested him and took him to the National Intelligence Agency.
The second order was to torture Captain Pierre Mendy. He told the court that Nuha Badjie called him whilst he was home, asked him to get dressed and come to the NIA because they had orders. Whilst at the NIA, he said, when he asked Nuha what they were doing there, Nuha told him that some of the officers were not cooperating with the investigations and they were there to get a confession out of them. According to Correa, he had protested this order, stating that he told Nuha Badjie that that was not his job and not in line with his beliefs as a Christian or as a human being.
“Are you challenging the President’s orders?” he recalled Nuha asking.
During that back and forth, he said, Tumbul Tamba who was leading this operation overheard and said to him “Michael, you said what?”
“Michael, do as you are told. It is an order,” the defendant testified that this is what his late victim, Pierre Mendy, advised him.
“He was kneeled and I asked him to bend over, which he did. That’s when I started lashing him. That’s when he said yes I know about the coup and then I stopped.” The witness could be heard crying in the audio as he narrated the torture of the late Captain Mendy.
“I have no choice. I was a private soldier. I hit him a couple of times and Pierre started talking. At that moment if you don’t do it, you will be killed there or you will be tortured,” further indicating that his supervisors were present at that time.
Prosecution’s closing
Prosecutor Melissa Hindman argued that there was a general fear in The Gambia during the regime of former President Yahya Jammeh but that cannot be used as an excuse, otherwise nobody would be held accountable.
“He put a bag over their head and they were beaten by other Junglers so he is responsible for those acts that he helped other Junglers,” Hindman said.
“Duress is different.” At the end of the day, she said, it is about why the defendant did what he did. “Was there any impending threat or did he relish in the power?” She added that each time Correa did what he did over weeks, he had ample time. “There was no such threat.”
“Gambians had choices and you heard many of the choices Gambians made under the Jammeh regime. They explained to you that they had free will and were guided by their conscience. The defendant had the same choices. Not that the option was not available to the defendant. He went home every night but never left.”
Defence’s closing
Correa’s trial was scheduled to commence in September last year but was postponed because the defence filed a motion to travel to The Gambia to collect depositions from Momodou Hydara, former deputy director of the National Intelligence Agency and Alieu Jeng, Correa’s former Jungler colleague whose testimonies Correa said will support his ‘coercion and under duress’ defence.
The defence, yesterday, in the beginning of the proceedings, told the court that they were not calling any witnesses to the stand and wanted to consult with their client if he was going to testify. After the consultation, Correa decided not to testify. Witnesses the defence said they were flying in were expected to arrive yesterday evening but the witness hearings have ended.
Defence attorney Mathew Belcher pointed out that each of the government witnesses who testified reinforced their point about the climate of fear in The Gambia and how nobody was safe from Yahya Jammeh even when you ran away. He elaborated on the testimony of Sainey Bayo, stating “he has told you that you had to be cautious about President Jammeh. Why? Because he said you could die quickly.” So therefore, he told the court, Michael Correa had to follow the President’s orders without question.
He argued that the government was treating these fears as vague, but they were real.
“There was an imminent, real, violent threat. Mr Correa could not refuse and escape the threat. He had one option: comply or die.”
The government rebutted that their position was not that the atmosphere of fear was unreal. “That was not our position.”
“What you did not hear is what happened to this defendant. Any threat if he did not torture. What you heard over and over again from witnesses is who they feared were the Junglers. They were the executioners.”
The jury is now deliberating. There is a possibility of getting a verdict today.
Mariam Sankanu’s trip to the United States of America to cover this trial has been funded by CJA.
