The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) announced in a brief statement on Wednesday night that Michael Correa, a former member of the death squad of then-dictator Jammeh, will now stand trial on charges of torture in the United States on September 16, 2024. This change in date will enable Correa’s attorneys to travel to the Gambia and obtain additional testimony from two witnesses.

This comes after Correa filed two papers last week. The second motion was approved, but the first was denied.

According to the motions, Correa planned to use Momodou Hydara and Alieu Jeng’s evidence during the trial to bolster his position, which is that he was coerced and under pressure when he allegedly assaulted the people named in the indictment.

However, he {Correa} claims that Hydara and Jeng declined to come to the US unless the US government granted them protection from prosecution, which the US government refused to do.

According to CJA, Correa’s initial motion sought the judge to throw out the prosecution against him on the grounds that the government was not making it easier for his witnesses to appear. The court thus rejected Correa’s request to have the accusations against him dismissed yesterday, {on September 11th}.

In order to allow his lawyers to fly to the Gambia and take depositions from Jeng and Hydara, the accused urged the court to postpone the trial.

In rare situations where a witness is unable to appear in person, depositions—a type of videotaped testimony—may be given. The statement read, “The judge granted Correa’s motion this afternoon, September 11th.”

“It is crucial that the judge gives Correa a chance to present his defense, even though these delays are painful for victims who have been waiting for some form of justice for decades,” CJA stated in a brief statement.

Six counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to conduct torture are being brought against the former jungler. He was once a member of the infamous Gambia killing squad known as the Junglers, which was led by the late president Yahya Jammeh.

According to the accusation, Correa and other Junglers allegedly tortured suspected coup participants by beating them, smothering them with plastic bags, and shocking them with electricity after a failed coup attempt against Jammeh’s government in 2006.

The extraterritorial Torture Act, a criminal statute that permits the prosecution of someone discovered within the United States for crimes of torture committed overseas, is how the U.S. government brought the accusations.

Given that this is only the third trial conducted under the Torture Act and the first trial involving a non-citizen of the United States since the Act’s passage in 1994, human rights advocates and legal experts have given this case a great deal of attention.

However, CJA said the trial would be rescheduled at a later time.