Life imprisonment for more than 400 rebels in Chad: More than 400 rebels were sentenced Tuesday to life imprisonment in Chad, mainly for “harming the life” of former President Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed on the frontline in 2021 during a rebel attack, the prosecution told FLA.

Life imprisonment for more than 400 rebels in Chad

“More than 400 people have been sentenced” to life imprisonment “for terrorist acts, mercenaries, recruitment of children into the army and attack on the life of the head of state,” said the Prosecutor General of N’Djamena, Mohamed El Hadj Aba Nana, without wishing to. giving the exact number of convicted.

He spoke of “the acquittal of 24 people” at the end of the trial, which began more than a month ago.

Sessions of the N’Djamena correctional court were held behind closed doors in the vicinity of Klissum prison, about 20 km southeast of the capital, in a country that has repeatedly been accused of conducting mass trials.

Lawyers for the defendants said they’ll appeal the verdict with Chad’s Supreme Court. “As this decision has been made public by the court of appeal, there is only the right to appeal,” said Lokoulde Francis, a lawyer for the accused.

In April 2021, the Front for Change and Understanding in Chad (FACT) launched an offensive from its rear bases in Libya on the day of the presidential election that the former president, who had ruled the country for 30 years, was certain to win.

Deby seized power in 1990 when his rebel forces overthrew then-President Hissene Habre, who was later convicted of human rights abuses at an international tribunal in Senegal. Deby ran the country for more than three decades and died of unspecified injuries when he visited troops fighting the rebel group, which was seeking to gain control of the oil-rich Central African nation. No details of his death were made public.