Ex-Chad leader to face trial for war crimes under universal jurisdiction

The former leader of Chad has been placed on trial in Senegal for crimes against humanity.

Hissene Habre, who led Chad between 1982 and 1990, will be tried by the Senegalese courts of  Extraordinary African Chambers. The court was established by the African Union to hear the specific case.

The trials are the first time a case under universal jurisdiction has taken place in Africa.

It is also the first time the courts of one country are prosecuting the former ruler of another in Africa, said, Human Rights Watch.

Mr Habre was living in exile in Senegal for 22 years before being arrested in 2013. Evidence suggests that at least 1m200 were killed and 12,000 tortured under Habre’s rule.

See more here.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.