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19 March 2024

Hissene Habre gets life in jail

Published
By Agencies

A court in Senegal sentenced former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre to life in jail Monday for war crimes and crimes against humanity, an unprecedented conviction hailed as a blow to the impunity long enjoyed by repressive rulers.

The verdict brings long-awaited closure for relatives of the up to 40,000 people killed and many more kidnapped, raped or tortured during his 1982-1990 term as president of Chad.

Habre was guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, forced sexual slavery and kidnapping, said the presiding judge Gberdao Gustave Kam.

The 73-year-old ex-dictator, who wore his trademark billowing white robes and sunglasses in court, had presided over "a system where impunity and terror were the law," Kam said.

The case was heard by a special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal, and is the first time a country has prosecuted a former leader of another nation for rights abuses.

On hearing the decision, Habre raised his arms in the air and shouted "Down with Francafrique!", the term used for France's continuing influence on its former colonies.

He had declined to address the court throughout the 10-month trial, and refused to recognise its authority.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the conviction was "an opportunity for the United States to reflect on, and learn from," its involvement in Chad, referring to US and France's backing of his regime as a buffer against Libya's Moamer Khadafi.

An EU spokesman said the "historic" sentence set an "important precedent for international justice and the fight against impunity" and praised the determination of Senegal's authorities in bring the case to trial.

Habre has two weeks to appeal the sentence.