The trial of 454 suspected rebels in Chad, all accused of the "assassination" of former President Idriss Déby Itno, killed at the front in 2021 during their offensive, opened on Monday behind closed doors, in a country regularly pointed out finger for speedy mass trials.
The hearing of the Criminal Court of the Court of Appeal of N'Djamena, held in the enclosure of the Klessoum prison, about twenty km south-east of the capital, was adjourned to Wednesday immediately after the reading of the indictment.
The defendants are "more than 400" declared to AFP the general prosecutor of N'Djamena Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, by telephone at the end of the hearing. "They are 454 accused", including 386 present, detailed lawyers to AFP.
In the spring of 2021, the then most powerful rebel group, the Front pour l'Alternance et la Concorde au Tchad (FACT), launched an offensive from its rear bases in Libya towards the capital N'Djamena.
On April 20, the army announced that Marshal Déby, who had ruled Chad for more than 30 years with an iron fist, had been killed at the front by the rebels and named one of his sons, the young general Mahamat Idriss Déby. Itno, President of the Republic for a period of transition, at the head of a military junta of 15 generals.
This trial comes two months after 262 people, out of 401 accused, including 80 minors, were sentenced to heavy prison terms, after being arrested before, during and after a demonstration which turned into a bloodbath on October 20, 2022.
About fifty young people had been killed that day, mainly by bullets, by the police, during this march denouncing the maintenance of power by General Déby beyond the 18 months of transition after which he had promised to return power to civilians through "free and democratic" elections.
-"Mass trial"-
International NGOs and some Western capitals were moved by this mass "trial", held in Koro Toro prison, in the middle of the desert 600 km from N'Djamena, in the absence of lawyers and the press. independent.
The 454 accused of Klessoum appear for "terrorism, mercenary, enlistment of children, attack on national security and the assassination" of President Déby, and incur life imprisonment.
"President Idriss Déby Itno went to the front because of them, he was killed. They are all being prosecuted for the assassination of the president," prosecutor general Abba Nana told AFP.
"They are all accused of the assassination" of the former head of state, confirmed to AFP Me Francis Lokoulde, one of the lawyers for the alleged rebels, all arrested during the April 2021 offensive, stopped by the army in the middle of the desert more than 200 km as the crow flies north of N'Djamena, before or after the death of Marshal Déby. The latter was killed in his convoy by heavy machine gun fire as they went to the front, according to the authorities.
- "Expedited justice" -
The offensive and the capture of the defendants date back nearly two years and Klessoum's trial was announced publicly, to everyone's surprise, a few days before it began.
The lawyers, many of whom were appointed, protested against such a short deadline, stressing in particular that the only voluminous file common to all the defendants was only sent to them at the "very last minute".
"We postponed the trial to Wednesday to allow each defendant to be assisted by a lawyer so that they are well defended," prosecutor general Abba Nana told AFP on Monday.
During a National Reconciliation Dialogue in the fall of 2022, boycotted by the opposition and the most powerful armed groups including FACT, Mahamat Déby "promised to release FACT elements (...), but we learned today that they will be tried for terrorism," Mahamat Nour Ahmed Ibedou, president of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) in Chad, told AFP on Monday.
"This does not bode well for the future (...), because each time there are mass arrests, it is for expeditious justice in a mass trial", he said. he worried.
At the end of January, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced the "mass trial" of young alleged demonstrators in Koro Toro prison but also accused the government of "murders", "enforced disappearances" and "acts of torture". during the long journey that brought 401 of them to this high-security prison and during their stay.
Some of these accusations have been corroborated in testimonies collected by AFP from young detainees released.
13/02/2023 16:34:08 - N'Djamena (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
