{"id":25707,"date":"2016-05-31T00:17:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-31T00:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/chad-ex-dictator-habre-gets-life-sentence-for-war\/"},"modified":"2016-05-31T00:17:25","modified_gmt":"2016-05-31T00:17:25","slug":"chad-ex-dictator-habre-gets-life-sentence-for-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/chad-ex-dictator-habre-gets-life-sentence-for-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Chad ex-dictator Habre gets life sentence for war crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Former president punished over killings and rape of civilian victims}<\/p>\n

The African Union-backed court in Senegal on Monday slammed a life jail sentence against former Chadian President Hiss\u00e8ne Habre.<\/p>\n

The Burkina Faso judge of the court, Justice Gberdao Gustave Kam, announced the verdict declaring Habr\u00e9 guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

Judge Kam, however declared that the former leader\u2019s property would not be confiscated as requested by the Senegalese prosecutor of the court.<\/p>\n

Habr\u00e9 will henceforth spend the rest of his life in the Camp Manuel jail near Dakar which were especially refurbished for the trial.<\/p>\n

Outside the courthouse, there were both wailing on the part of Habr\u00e9 supporters and jubilation on the part of the families of victims many of them from Chad who fell on the ground with tears of joy running down their cheeks.<\/p>\n

The verdict brings a long-awaited reckoning to relatives of the up to 40,000 people killed and many more kidnapped, raped or tortured under his 1982-1990 rule as president of Chad.<\/p>\n

Habre was guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape, forced slavery, and kidnapping, said the president of the court Gberdao Gustave Kam, sentencing him to life in jail. His time would be served in a yet to be determined location.<\/p>\n

Habre raised his arms into the air on hearing the verdict, shouting \u201cDown with France-afrique!\u201d referring to the term used for France\u2019s continuing influence on its former colonies.<\/p>\n

The former leader has 15 days to appeal the sentence.<\/p>\n

Victims groups who had travelled to Dakar to hear the verdict were visibly moved by a judgement that comes a quarter century after the abuses they suffered.<\/p>\n

FIGHT IMPUNITY<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling is one of complete satisfaction,\u201d said Clement Abeifouta, president of a Habre survivors association.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the crowning achievement of a long and hard fight against impunity. Today Africa has won. We say thank you to Senegal and to Africa for judging Africa,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The case was heard by the CAE 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.<\/p>\n

In the Chadian capital, N\u2019Djamena, up to 250 victims and their supporters gathered to watch the trial on television at their group\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n

Women screamed with joy as the verdict was read out, embracing one another and shouting \u201cWe won!\u201d, before taking to the streets and blocking traffic as they spread the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a victory for the Chadian people against impunity and injustice, never again,\u201d said Jean Noyama, head of the AVCRHH victims association.
\nThe precedent set by the verdict could be seismic, according to legal experts.<\/p>\n

Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch who has spent the last 15 years working with victims to bring Habre to justice, said the conviction was a warning to other despots.<\/p>\n

LIFE OF LUXURY<\/p>\n

\u201cThis verdict sends a powerful message that the days when tyrants could brutalise their people, pillage their treasury and escape abroad to a life of luxury are coming to an end,\u201d Reed said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday will be carved into history as the day that a band of unrelenting survivors brought their dictator to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amnesty International West Africa researcher Gaetan Mootoo said the verdict would serve as a guiding light for those living in repressive regimes around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is moments like these that other victims around the world can draw on in darker times when justice appears beyond reach. It will nourish them with hope and give them strength to fight for what is right,\u201d Mootoo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Known as a skilled desert warrior often dressed in combat fatigues to fit the role, Habre fled to Senegal after his 1990 ouster by Chad\u2019s current President Idriss Deby.<\/p>\n

Witnesses recounted the horror of life in Chad\u2019s prisons, describing in graphic detail abusive and often deadly punishments inflicted by Habre\u2019s feared secret police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).<\/p>\n

Victims were subject to electric shocks and waterboarding while some had gas sprayed in their eyes or spice rubbed into their genitals, the court heard.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Former president punished over killings and rape of civilian victims} The African Union-backed court in Senegal on Monday slammed a life jail sentence against former Chadian President Hiss\u00e8ne Habre. The Burkina Faso judge of the court, Justice Gberdao Gustave Kam, announced the verdict declaring Habr\u00e9 guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Judge Kam, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[100],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice","tag-africa","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25707"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25707"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}