[JURIST] A Senegal appeals court ruled Friday that it was "not competent" to extradite former Chad president Hissene Habre [Wikipedia profile] to Belgium to face charges of crimes against humanity – including some alleged 40,000 executions and the torture of over 200,000 people – committed during his 1982-90 rule of the African country. Habre has been living is Senegal since he was deposed in 1990; he was arrested last week [JURIST report] under an international arrest warrant [JURIST report] issued after Belgian prosecutors initiated proceedings under the country's univeral jurisdiction [Wikiepdia backgrounder] law. With the Senegal court refusing to consider extradition Belgium's legal options are as yet unclear. AP has more.
3:25 PM ET – Reports from Senegal say that Habre has now been released from detention, although prosecution lawyers and human rights monitors insist they will continue to press the case againt him. BBC News has more.