{Former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre’s trial in Dakar for torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity will begin on July 20, the special tribunal set up to judge him said Wednesday.}<\/p>\n
Once dubbed “Africa’s Pinochet”, Habre has been in custody in Senegal since his arrest in June 2013 at the home he shared with his wife and children.<\/p>\n
Rights groups say 40,000 people were killed during the 72-year-old’s eight years in power in Chad under a regime marked by fierce repression of his opponents and the targeting of ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
“The session of the Extraordinary African Chambers tasked with judging Habre will open on Monday, July 20, 2015 at 9:00 am (0900 GMT)” in Dakar, said the court, which was set up following a 2012 agreement between Senegal and the African Union.<\/p>\n
The first session will be presided by Gberdao Gustave Kam, president of the tribunal, the court statement added.<\/p>\n
Kam, 56, a former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, is a technical adviser to Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Justice and practised as a lawyer in Ouagadougou.<\/p>\n
Delayed for years by Senegal, where Habre has lived since being ousted in 1990, the hearings will set a historic precedent as until now African leaders accused of atrocities have been tried in international courts.<\/p>\n
Habre was also wanted for trial in Belgium on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges after three Belgian nationals of Chadian origin filed a suit in 2000 for arbitrary arrest, mass murder and torture.<\/p>\n
Senegal abolished the death penalty in 2008.<\/p>\n
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