SENEGAL-HISSENE HABRE TRIAL/REACTIONS Chad 's Habre forced to appear in court for second day, trial adjourned until Sept. 7

Record ID: 146535

  • Title: SENEGAL-HISSENE HABRE TRIAL/REACTIONS Chad 's Habre forced to appear in court for second day, trial adjourned until Sept. 7
  • Date: 21st July 2015
  • Summary: DAKAR, SENEGAL (JULY 20, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF HISSENE HABRE'S SUPPORTERS PROTESTING INSIDE COURT ROOM, SHOUTING "LONG LIVE HABRE" HABRE WEARING WHITE ROBE LISTENING MORE OF HIS SUPPORTERS SHOUTING HABRE BEING REMOVED BY FORCE BY GUARDS OUT OF THE COURTROOM HABRE'S SUPPORTERS BEING REMOVED FROM THE COURT ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Fre
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Senegal
  • Country: Senegal
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAD0HFN43ZHAHT9ZP9AJB920Q52
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The long awaited trial of Chad's former president Hissene Habre began on Monday (July 20), but was disrupted and abruptly stopped, after Habre denounced the legitimacy of the tribunal, to the cheers of some of his supporters seated in the court room.
    Dressed in all white, the former Chad president shouted "Down with imperialism," before the start of the trial. He was rushed from the courtroom by security men.
    Habre, who earlier had refused appear in court, was "brought in by force", said a source close to the special court.
    The trial marks the end of a 15-year battle to bring him to justice in Senegal, where he has lived in exile after being toppled in a coup.
    But for many of his supporters, who also denounce the legitimacy of the trial, this is another motive to humiliate him.
    "This tribunal does not operate within the constraints of its official role, and what I have observed here is that it has been given a clear mandate to sully the image of Habre. But the youth made themselves heard earlier, we find this (trial) to be unfair and they have expressed their indignation," said one Habre supporter, Hassam Kerim.
    Though African presidents have been tried in their own countries for crimes committed in office, Habre's trial, which is taking place in Senegal's capital of Dakar, marks the first time that a court in one country has prosecuted the former ruler of another on rights charges, according to Human Rights Watch.
    Habre, backed by Washington as a bulwark against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in the 1980s, is blamed by rights groups for widespread torture and the killing of up to 40,000 people during the eight years he ruled his impoverished central African nation.
    More than a hundred victims are due to testify at the trial.
    Many hope that trial, that took over a decade to actualise will give some of Habre's victims some relief.
    "I have to say, I feel a mix of different emotions; joy mixed with sadness, especially because many people have disappeared since we started this long judicial process, in this quest for justice. This has been a source of a lot sadness, and has dampened the joy we feel today,": said Jacqueline Mudeina, one of the victims' lawyer.
    The case against Habre turns on whether he personally ordered the killing and torture of political opponents and ethnic rivals.
    A 1992 Chadian Truth Commission accused Habré's government of up to 40,000 political murders, mostly by his intelligence police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS).
    Human Rights Watch in 2001 unearthed thousands of documents in the abandoned DDS headquarters updating Habre on the status of detainees. A court handwriting expert concluded that margin notes on one document were Habre's.
    Some of the victims who are due to testify say the trial will vindicate them and give them a chance to tell the world in their own words and expose the kind of man Habre is.
    "Since he arrived here, people hailed him as a pious man, a devout muslim. Now he is scared, he fears that really if he has been called here today and that he is called to speak, and if we are asked to speak, he will be unmasked; the community which openly welcomed him here, thought of him as irreproachable figure, will shun him. This is precisely the motivation of his fear, he does not want people to hear from his own mouth that these facts were of his doing. That's all, " said 66 year-old Souleymane Guengueng, who spent years secretly compiling evidence of Habre's crimes after his fall.
    Habre was brought to court by force for the second day of the hearing on Tuesday (July 21), but his lawyers did not show, prompting the special court to appoint a legal team who will represent him. The new lawyers were given 45 days to prepare.
    A successful trial, conducted to high standards and leading to a credible verdict, would strengthen African countries' argument that they should try their own, amid criticism of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for indicting only Africans.
    The trial is expected to last three months and Habre, who faces charges of war crimes, torture and crimes against humanity, could face a maximum of life in prison.
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