Chad jails more than 400 rebels for life for president’s death

Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno, a military marshal, died of his injuries suffered in clashes with rebels on the front line in the country's north on 20 April 2021. He had been in power since 1990 and was re-elected for a sixth term in the April, 11, 2021 elections. File picture: Abir Sultan/ EPA-EFE

Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno, a military marshal, died of his injuries suffered in clashes with rebels on the front line in the country's north on 20 April 2021. He had been in power since 1990 and was re-elected for a sixth term in the April, 11, 2021 elections. File picture: Abir Sultan/ EPA-EFE

Published Mar 21, 2023

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N'Djamena - More than 400 rebels in Chad were handed life sentences on Tuesday, mainly in connection with the death of president Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed in 2021, the prosecutor said.

After a mass trial, they were sentenced for "acts of terrorism, mercenarism, recruitment of child soldiers and assaulting the head of state," said Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, public prosecutor for the capital N'Djamena.

He did not give a detailed figure for those jailed, saying only that "more than 400 were sentenced" to life, while 24 other defendants were acquitted.

The trial opened last month behind closed doors in the Criminal Court of the Court of Appeal.

It took place within Klessoum prison about 20km south-east of the capital.

Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno, a military marshal, died of his injuries suffered in clashes with rebels on the front line in the country's north on 20 April 2021. He had been in power since 1990 and was re-elected for a sixth term in the April, 11, 2021 elections. File picture: Abir Sultan/ EPA-EFE

In early 2021, the country's main rebel group, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, launched an offensive on the north of the country from its bases in Libya.

On April 20, the army announced that Marshal Deby, Chad's iron-fisted ruler for the previous three decades, had died from wounds sustained in the fighting.

His death was announced just a day after he had been declared victor of a presidential election that gave him a sixth term in office.

He was immediately succeeded by one of his sons, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who took the helm at the head of 15-member military junta.

He promised to hold free elections within 18 months, but that deadline was extended.

Protests last October to mark the initially promised end to military rule were met by a crackdown in which 50 people were killed, according to an official toll contested by opposition groups.

A total of 262 people were then handed terms of between two and three years after a trial in the notorious Koro Toro prison, isolated in the desert 600km from N'Djamena.

Despite criticism of his authoritarian rule, the elder Deby was a key ally in the West's anti-jihadist campaign in the unstable Sahel, particularly due to the relative strength of Chad's military.

AFP

Chadian soldiers carry the coffin of the late Chadian president Idriss Deby during the state funeral in N'Djamena on on April 23, 2021. More than 400 rebels were sentenced to life imprisonment in Chad on March 21, 2023, in particular for ‘attacking the life’ of the late president, who was killed on the front line in 2021 during their offensive. Picture: Christophe Petit Tesson / AFP