Chad's ex-president handed life sentence

Hissene Habre, Chad’s president from 1982-90, raises his fist Monday in Dakar, Senegal, during a hearing at which a special court sentenced him to life in prison for crimes committed during his time in power.
Hissene Habre, Chad’s president from 1982-90, raises his fist Monday in Dakar, Senegal, during a hearing at which a special court sentenced him to life in prison for crimes committed during his time in power.

DAKAR, Senegal -- Hissene Habre, the former president of Chad, was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty Monday of crimes against humanity, torture and sex crimes more than 20 years after the start of a campaign to hold him accountable for the suffering and death of tens of thousands of people.

Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982-1990 until he was deposed by the current president, Idriss Deby, stood trial before a special court in Senegal created to handle the case. Prosecutors had sought the life sentence, which he is expected to serve in Senegal.

"The systematic torture at such a large scale was his way of governing," said Gberdao Gustave Kam, the presiding judge, who read a summary of the verdict. "Hissene Habre showed no compassion toward the victims or any regret about the massacres and rapes that were committed."

Victims and their relatives screamed with joy after the verdict was announced. Habre, who had sat silently during the 90-minute hearing, raised his fists to supporters and shouted for several minutes until he was led away by armed guards.

The fact that the trial even took place was considered a victory for many of Habre's government's victims, who fought for more than two decades to bring him to justice.

The case meandered through the judiciary in Belgium and elsewhere for years before landing in Senegal, where Habre fled after being forced from power.

On Monday, a group of about 30 victims and widows of victims made their way into the courthouse together, many graying and using canes.

"This is a testimony to the perseverance of a band of victims, activists and supporters who made this trial happen," said Reed Brody, a Human Rights Watch lawyer from New York who was influential in pursuing the case. "This trial was the result of the sweat and determination of the survivors."

Several international human-rights lawyers were in the gallery on Monday to hear the verdict, including the prosecutor who indicted Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled Chile from 1973-1990. Habre has been called the "African Pinochet."

During the trial, which started in July, prosecutors presented secret-police archives that recorded the names of 12,321 prisoners, interrogation reports and information about the deaths in detention of more than 1,200 people.

Francois Serres, Habre's lawyer, has dismissed the records as "fakes."

Defense attorneys had said there was no evidence connecting Habre to crimes committed by others and had contended that the prosecution was political. Habre's son and other relatives were in court Monday but declined to comment before the proceedings.

According to a Chadian truth commission, Habre's government killed more than 40,000 people who were believed to be enemies of the state, or who had come under suspicion.

Testimony involving sex crimes also figured in the trial. One woman described Habre raping her, insisting when a judge interrupted that she be allowed to continue her testimony in public so that the world could know what the former president had done.

On Monday, the judges convicted Habre of that rape specifically.

Others testified about relatives who had disappeared, and former prisoners described being wounded after their limbs were tied behind their backs.

One former prisoner, Clement Abaifouta, said in an interview that he could never forget the horrors he had seen in jail.

Abaifouta, who was in court for the verdict, had worked in a prison kitchen and a laundry room before he was ordered to take on a new role, as gravedigger.

"What broke my life is the fact that I buried about 1,000 people," he said. "With all that Habre did, we could cut him into pieces and it wouldn't satisfy everyone."

A Section on 05/31/2016

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