In U.S.,the trial of one of ex-President of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh’s alleged death squad member, Michael Sang Korea will kicks off marking the first time a non-U.S. citizen will stand trial in a U.S. federal court for torture committed abroad.
The trial is a significant step towards securing justice for the victims of Yahya Jammeh’s ion-fist ruling, which was characterized by widespread human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, and arbitrary detention.
Correa is charged with six counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture.
The indictment alleges that, following an attempted coup against Jammeh’s regime in 2006, Mr. Correa and other Junglers tortured suspected participants in the coup, including by beating them, suffocating them with plastic bags, and subjecting them to electric shocks.
The U.S. government has 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, under the U.S. Torture Act 1994.
A coalition of human rights organizations, including the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), representatives of the Alliance of Victim-Led Organizations (AVLO), and TRIAL International, played a crucial role in urging the United States to investigate allegations of international crimes attributed to Mr. Correa in The Gambia.
