Chad’s ex-President Hissene Habre has been charged in Senegal with war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture by a special court.
The 70 year old, who was arrested on Sunday in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, denies killing and torturing tens of thousands of his opponents.
He fled to Senegal when he was deposed after eight years in power in 1990.
Last year, the UN’s International Court of Justice ordered Senegal to put him on trial or extradite him.
Mr Habre appeared before a special court set up in Senegal to investigate the allegations. He will remain in custody pending the trial.
Analysts say the case would be a milestone for African justice – representing the first time an African leader has been tried in a fellow African country on charges of crimes against humanity.
The Senegalese authorities and the African Union had for years failed to make a decision on his fate despite pressure from human rights groups.
Mr Habre and his wife kept a low profile in Dakar, where he lived in relative freedom despite being put under house arrest in 2005 – guarded by two security agents.
Senegalese MPs passed a law in December allowing a special African Union tribunal to be created in the country to try the former leader, who has been dubbed “Africa’s Pinochet”.
{Mr Habre}
BBC
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