HRW: Chad courts must conduct fair trial of former dictator’s security forces News
HRW: Chad courts must conduct fair trial of former dictator’s security forces

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Monday called [text] for the trial of 26 former state security agents of Chad dictator Hissene Habre [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] to be carried out in a “fair and transparent manner.” The defendants are accused of murder, torture, kidnapping, arbitrary detention, and assault and battery during Habre’s rule. The trial is set to commence in Chad’s capital N’Djamena on November 14. Two of the defendants, Saleh Younouss and Mahamat Djibrine, are wanted by the Extraordinary African Chambers [official website, in French] in Dakar, Senegal. This special criminal court was created [statute, in French] to prosecute “the person or persons most responsible” for crimes and grave violations of international law committed in Chad during Habre’s rule from 1982 to 1990. In October the Chadian government refused to transfer [HRW report] the two alleged accomplices to the Extraordinary African Chamber. Initial complaints against former members of Habre’s security forces were filed in 2000, but, according to HRW, the Chadian justice system only began actively pursuing the case in 2013 following the creation of the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal. HRW and advocates representing the victims of Habre’s security forces have expressed concern that the recent rapid movement in the case and accelerated timetable leading up to the trial could undermine the trial’s fairness and limit the attention and preparation that the matter deserves. According to the report the November 14 trial date was announced by the prosecutor on October 30, providing parties with only two weeks of preparation.

Habre, who fled to Senegal after being deposed in 1990, was indicted by the Extraordinary African Chambers in July 2013 and placed in pretrial detention. His trial is scheduled to begin in May 2015. In 2013 more than 1,000 victims filed [JURIST report] for civil party status, asking the Extraordinary African Chambers to officially recognize them as parties with an interest in the matter. The African Union [official website] began talks with Senegal to come up with a plan for Habre’s trial after the International Court of Justice [official website] ruled [JURIST report] in July 2012 that Senegal must either try Habre promptly or extradite him to Belgium for trial.

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