The Trial of Hissène Habré by Celeste Hicks

“He’s acting like a spoiled child who won’t take his medicine. Victims groups in court dismissed Habré’s diversionary tactics. The court opened again this morning with a continuation of the reading of the 187-page indictment.

There had been some concern that the case could not proceed without a defence, but Kam seems to have decided to press ahead. The victims’ lawyers warned that Habré would merely use the intervening 42 days to ignore the defence team, which in fact he did – court-appointed lawyer Mounir Ballal confirmed yesterday that Habré flatly refused his visits in prison. Despite Habré’s behaviour in court – which has so far included refusing to speak to the judge on the opening day in July and having to be escorted from the court while waving his fingers in a V for Victory salute, and then again yesterday having to be carried to the bench and pinned down by masked security agents while shouting “Shut up!” at a clerk who read out a list of names of his alleged victims – Judge Gustave Gabre Kam from Burkina Faso has tried diligently to follow procedure.įollowing Habré’s dismissal of his defence team in July, Judge Kam announced an adjournment to allow for a court-appointed defence team to study the former leader’s dossier. The presiding judge in the trial of Hissène Habré, which resumed yesterday in the Senegalese capital Dakar, seems determined to show that the former leader of Chad will get a fair trial. The International Federation for Human Rights investigating crimes committed under Habré’s rule in Chad.

The Trial of Hissène Habré by Celeste Hicks