A federal judge on Friday sentenced an African man to 67.5 years in prison after jurors found him guilty on six torture-related counts for acts committed in his home country, The Gambia.

Prosecutors in Colorado pursued the unusual criminal case against Michael Sang Correa under the federal Torture Act of 1994. The law makes it a crime for someone present in the United States to have committed torture while outside the U.S.

The government alleged Correa was involved in the investigation of an unsuccessful 2006 coup attempt against then-President Yahya Jammeh in The Gambia. Correa was part of the “Junglers,” an armed unit under Jammeh’s control that tortured multiple coup suspects.

Jurors in April found Correa guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit torture and that his actions were not the product of “duress or coercion.” Jurors also convicted him on five counts related to torturing specific victims.

“Joining the Junglers set you on the wrong path,” said U.S. District Court Senior Judge Christine M. Arguello, according to Courthouse News Service. “You continued down that path and chose to torture your fellow citizens, which you knew was immoral and criminal.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office indicated that Correa had burned victims’ flesh and beaten them repeatedly with weapons.

“The victims of these crimes carried the weight of unimaginable suffering for years, not knowing whether they would ever see their torturer held accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Peter McNeilly. “Today’s sentence delivers a measure of justice for them and affirms that the United States stands firmly with those whose human rights have been violated.”

Correa, who came to the U.S. in 2016, was indicted in 2020 under the Torture Act. Arguello repeatedly rejected the defense’s arguments for dismissing the case, including a constitutional challenge to Correa being prosecuted for crimes outside the United States.

The case is United States v. Correa.