Chaotic start to trial of former Chad dictator

‘Africa’s Pinochet’ taken in and out of unruly courtroom

DAKAR // The trial of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre got off to a turbulent start yesterday as security forces ushered the ex-leader into and then out of the Senegal courtroom amid protests by his supporters.

More than a quarter century after his blood-soaked reign came to an end, Mr Habre is facing charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture before the Extraordinary Afri- can Chambers (EAC), a special tribunal created to try him in the Senegalese courts.

Once dubbed “Africa’s Pinochet”, the 72-year-old, who ruled Chad from 1982 to1990, has been in custody in Senegal since his 2013 arrest at the home he shared in an affluent Dakar suburb with his wife and children.

Lawyers for Mr Habre said court officials forcibly led him to the courtroom to participate in the trial, which he has denounced as politically motivated.

“He didn’t want to come, but he was taken by force,” said Mouth Bane, a former communications officer for Mr Habre who is among his supporters.

Mr Habre had said he did not recognise the court’s jurisdiction and vowed he and his lawyers would play no part in the trial.

As Mr Habre entered the court in a white robe, his supporters started shouting, prompting security officers to take him back out. Proceedings then began without him.

It is the first trial in Africa of a universal jurisdiction case, in which a country’s national courts can prosecute serious crimes committed abroad by a foreigner and against foreign victims, said Human Rights Watch.

It is also the first time the courts of one country are pros- ecuting the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes.

Marcel Mendy, spokesman for the EAC, called this a historic event that goes beyond Chad.

“Africa must prove that it is able to judge one of its children and not leave it for others to do,” he said on Sunday. Mr Habre’s government was responsible for an estimated 40,000 deaths, according to a report published in May 1992 by a truth commission formed by Chad’s current president Idriss Deby.