Court in Senegal sentences former Chad President Hissène Habré to life imprisonment

A special court in Senegal sentenced former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré to life in prison on Monday for war crimes, crimes against humanity and a litany of other charges, including rape.

The verdict brings a long-awaited day of reckoning to up to 40,000 people kidnapped, raped and tortured under his rule as president of Chad from 1982-1990.

“Hissène Habré, this court finds you guilty of crimes against humanity, rape, forced slavery, and kidnapping,” as well as war crimes, said Gberdao Gustave Kam, president of the special court. “The court condemns you to life in prison,” Kam added.

The court also heard that Habré had raped a woman named Khadija Hassan Zidane on several occasions.

The case was heard at the Extraordinary African Chambers (CAE) – 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.

Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 15 years working with victims to bring Habré to justice, said the conviction was a warning to other despots.

A powerful message

“This verdict sends a powerful message that the days when tyrants could brutalize their people, pillage their treasury and escape abroad to a life of luxury are coming to an end,” Reed said in a statement Monday.

Known as a skilled desert warrior who often wore combat fatigues to fit the role, Habré fled to Senegal after his 1990 ouster.

Witnesses recounted the horror of life in Chad’s prisons, describing in graphic detail abusive and often deadly punishments inflicted by Habré’s feared secret police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).

Victims were subject to electric shocks and waterboarding, the court heard.

Habré’s defence team unsuccessfully sought to cast doubt on the prosecution argument that their client was an all-knowing, all-powerful head of the DDS, suggesting he may have been unaware of abuses on the ground.

For more than 20 years, Habré lived freely in an upmarket Dakar suburb with his wife and children. He declined to address the court throughout the 10-month trial, refusing to recognize its authority.

Habré frequently disrupted proceedings during his trial. He shouted abuse, called the process “a farce”, and had to be carried into the court after refusing to appear. His critics dubbed him “Africa’s Pinochet” because of the atrocities allegedly committed during his rule.

He was arrested in Senegal, where he was exiled, in 2013.

Source: Agencies