Amnesty International on Monday called upon Chad authorities to “immediately release” the relatives of killed opposition party leader Yaya Dillo Djerou, who remain detained despite being acquitted.
The statement urges Chadian authorities to release 10 detained relatives of the Parti Socialiste sans Frontières (PSF) leader. The relatives were acquitted in July following a military assault on the PSF headquarters in February 2024, during which Djerou was killed. Despite their acquittal, they remain imprisoned in Koro Toro maximum security facility. Amnesty International also urged authorities to disclose the charges against 14 other relatives convicted in the same case, transfer them to detention facilities in N’Djamena as required by national law, and ensure their appeals are processed “in line with Chad’s national and international human rights obligations.”
Earlier this year, Amnesty International highlighted concerns over the inhumane and degrading conditions in Koro Toro prison, where Yaya Dillo Djerou’s relatives are detained. Among the detainees are three minors aged 16 to 18 and several chronically ill individuals who have been denied access to medical care. According to a relative of one of the convicted, “[t]he people who were sentenced are pupils, students and sympathizers of the party without any operational role. They have appealed the decision, but no date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.” The relatives have been denied access to legal counsel until the case’s first hearing and have not been permitted contact with their family.
Amnesty International’s regional director for West and Central Africa, Samira Daoud, said:
To keep 10 people locked up in Koro Toro prison, despite their acquittal, is a clear case of arbitrary detention, and a violation of national and international human rights law. This is part of a consistent pattern of repression against opposition supporters in Chad, in the continuity of the events of October 2022 when dozens of demonstrators were killed and hundreds of others arrested and detained in Koro Toro in violation of their human rights.
In violation of national and international human rights law, Chadian authorities have similarly targeted other PSF members through arbitrary and incommunicado detention, denying them access to family or legal counsel. Those detained include PSF secrerary-general Robert Gam, who has been held since September 2024 and National Finance Secretary Abakar Torabi, initially accused of involvement in a plot to assassinate the president of the Supreme Court, was arrested in February and subjected to months of secret detention before being released in November.
The large-scale military assault, “described by the authorities as a shoot-out and by Yaya Dillo Djerou’s supporters as an assassination,” occurred on February 27, 2024. Authorities launched the attack accusing supporters of Djerou of assaulting the National Security Agency headquarters on February 27, in an attempt to free Abakar Torabi. Djerou’s supporters rejected these accusations. Despite this, no investigation was conducted into the attack on the PSF headquarters.
The detentions follow the “violent repression” of opposition protests, resulting in mass arrests. Notably, protests that ensued in October 2022 resulted in the killing of 128 protesters, with hundreds more arrested.
