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Chad ex-leader Habre charged in Senegal with war crimes | Chad ex-leader Habre charged in Senegal with war crimes |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Chad's ex-President Hissene Habre has been charged in Senegal with war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture by a special court. | |
The 70 year old, who was arrested on Sunday in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, denies killing and torturing tens of thousands of his opponents. | |
He fled to Senegal when he was deposed after eight years in power in 1990. | He fled to Senegal when he was deposed after eight years in power in 1990. |
Last year, the UN's International Court of Justice ordered Senegal to put him on trial or extradite him. | Last year, the UN's International Court of Justice ordered Senegal to put him on trial or extradite him. |
Mr Habre appeared before a special court set up in Senegal to investigate the allegations. He will remain in custody pending the trial. | |
Analysts say the case would be a milestone for African justice - representing the first time an African leader has been tried in a fellow African country on charges of crimes against humanity. | Analysts say the case would be a milestone for African justice - representing the first time an African leader has been tried in a fellow African country on charges of crimes against humanity. |
'Africa's Pinochet' | |
The Senegalese authorities and the African Union had for years failed to make a decision on his fate despite pressure from human rights groups. | |
Mr Habre and his wife kept a low profile in Dakar, where he lived in relative freedom despite being put under house arrest in 2005 - guarded by two security agents. | |
Senegalese MPs passed a law in December allowing a special African Union tribunal to be created in the country to try the former leader, who has been dubbed "Africa's Pinochet". | |
The BBC's Thomas Fessy in Dakar says the official investigation will take up to 15 months before a trial can start. | |
The charges against him date from 1982, when Mr Habre came to power in a coup, until 1990, the year he was ousted. | |
Jacqueline Moudeina, a lawyer for some of his alleged victims, told the BBC that the move came as a relief to her clients who had been seeking justice for years. | |
Mr Habre's lawyer El-Hadji Diouf told the BBC he remained confident the truth would eventually emerge and Mr Habre would be discharged. | |
The former Chadian president was first indicted in Senegal in 2000 - but the country's courts ruled at the time that he could not be tried there. | |
His alleged victims then filed complaints under Belgium's universal jurisdiction law, which allows the country's judges to prosecute human rights offences committed anywhere in the world. | |
He was charged by Belgium with crimes against humanity and torture in 2005, but Senegal has refused four extradition requests. | |
Plans in 2011 to repatriate Mr Habre to Chad, where a court in 2008 sentenced him to death in absentia for planning to overthrow the government, were stopped following a plea from the UN. |
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