Hissene Habre celebrates ‘victory’ as trial is delayed

Dakar

Hissene Habre, the former Chadian despot now in the dock, is celebrating a victory of sorts after judges at the African Union-backed court adjourned his trial to September 7.

Mr Habre threw his hands in the air in victory as he was driven to his cell.

Families of victims wept openly.

The families had hoped for an early guilty verdict.

Mr Habre’s team’s strategy, it seems, is to undermine the court’s legitimacy.

After noisily refusing to attend the first day of the trial, the former Chadian strongman and his lawyers have scored a victory by prompting a postponement.

The 45-day breather will give him time to come up with another delaying tactic, now that he has a new team of lawyers.

If Three top lawyers were appointed by the court to replace the initial team that has vowed to stay out of the case.

The families of the victims said the postponement was increasing their pain, anguish and frustration.

To them, the delay is longer than the 15 years of sustained legal battle to have Mr Habre stand trial.

Analysts say the lawyers could succeed in crafting another strategy that would help the former dictator buy time with more adjournments.

Some say another reason for Mr Habre’s early celebration could be that he expects any jail term imposed on him to be reduced considerably.

JAILED LIKE CHARLES TAYLOR

But the important thing is few experts doubt that at the end of it all, Mr Habre will be jailed, just like former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.

Mr Taylor was jailed for crimes against humanity by a Special court backed by the United Nations.

“There is no way Hissene Habré will get away with the crimes he committed against our people,” a confident Chadian witness, Mahmet Mbaré, told the Africa Review.

If found guilty, Mr Habre could face up to 30 years in jail, most likely behind the walls of the Manuel Maximum Security Prison, Dakar.

It was recently refurbished with Mr Habre in mind, but he has lately been sharing it with one of Senegal’s popular musicians, Thione Seck, being held in “preventive custody”.

The mbalax musician is accused of possessing more than $1 million (Sh100 million) in fake CFA francs, dollars and euros.

Like Mr Taylor, the Chadian despot is accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture as well as the killings or disappearance of 40,000 opponents during his rule from 1982 to 1990.

Mr Habre had problems with his previous defence team.

SACKED LAWYER

He sacked one of the lawyers, the Senegalese MP El Haj Diouf, for holding “unauthorised” meetings with current Chadian President Idriss Deby.

President Deby seized power from Habre in 1990 after many years of guirrela wa.

He will also be a witness in Mr Habres trial.

In the 17 months of the preliminary hearings, the special court has listened to harrowing testimonies from thousands of victims and their relatives.

Many of them made the journey to Senegal with photographs of their slain relatives.

Some also went with photographs of the infamous swimming pool in N’Djamena that was built by the French colonial government, but later turned into a dungeon by Mr Habre and his cronies.

Back home in Chad, thousands have religiously followed live radio and television broadcasts of the trial via Senegal’s national radio and television, RTS.

SPECIAL TRIBUTE

Following the two-day opening of the trial, the chairperson of the association of Chadian victims, Noyama Kovounsouna, paid glowing tribute to the victims.

He paid a special tribute to the prosecutor of the AU-backed court, Mr Mbacke Fall, who has made several trips to Chad and visited mass graves and sites of torture,

He has also listened to heart-rending testimonies about Mr Habre’s reign of terror.

“If there is justice or something like a judgment worthy of the name, then other dictators who are still in power will be scared and the lesson from the trial would be worth something,” Mr Souleymane Kemgue Maradas, one of Mr Habre’s victims, told a French radio station shortly after the case was adjourned on July 21.