Former Chadian President Hissène Habré has been asked to be released from prison for six months, mainly for health reasons. If granted, the former head of state could be released on Tuesday, April 13, for Ramadan. But the demand goes badly with the victims of the one who is serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
For Assane Dioma Ndiaye, President of the Senegalese League for Human Rights, the victims of oppression led by the former Chadian head of state “never understands and will never tolerate a possible releasealso temporary ”.
The victims do not understand this individual or discriminatory attention, depending on whether it is Mr Hissène Habré or the victims. And they, no one seems to care about their fate: they have not received compensation since the trial, these victims remain. You see, when he is considered your executioner, who has been convicted, the African Union does nothing and Mr. Habré’s lawyers occasionally manage to get this type of release. They can be explained for humanitarian reasons, but this consideration should not be selective: we must also know that there are victims who die day by day today. And so that is why the victims never understand and will never tolerate a possible release, even temporary.
For human rights defenders and their victims, the release of Hissène Habré for Ramadan would be unacceptable.
Former President Hissène Habré, head of Chad from 1982 until he was ousted by the current head of state Idriss Déby in 1990, led an operation that left 40,000 dead, according to a Chadian commission of inquiry. He was was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity by a special African court in Dakar 2017, where he had taken refuge.
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