'Black Thursday' in Chad: 259 people released from prison after being pardoned

Aerial view of N'Djamena. © David Baché/RFI

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In Chad, some 259 men, mostly young people, were released from prison on Saturday 8 April. They were pardoned by the Head of State, Mahamat Déby, on 27 March.

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Pardoned two weeks ago, they are now free. The 259 men detained for five months were given a "certificate of release" at the Justice Ministry, reports Agence France-Presse.

They were arrested on October 20, during this day of demonstration against the bloody repressed government, which the Chadians have renamed "Black Thursday". Then, on 2 December, during a mass trial, held without lawyers or independent media in Koro Toro prison, all were sentenced to between two and three years in prison for "unauthorized assembly, destruction of property, arson, violence and assault, assault and battery and disturbing public order".

READ ALSO: Chad pardons 259 people sentenced for October protests

But according to several human rights organizations, many of these young men were in fact prisoners of conscience. This is in any case the opinion of Mahamat Nour Ibédou, president of the National Human Rights Commission of Chad. He welcomes these graces and releases, but calls on the Head of State to go even further now.

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This presidential pardon really came at the right time in the context of the establishment of a peaceful transition. We need this kind of act that is likely to defuse the climate in the context of this Transition, he believes. However, we have always asked the President of the Transition to continue efforts to bring back those who are still outside the country and who are still discontented, who are still in exile. To bring them back into the fold because we need everyone for this transition. And so, the National Human Rights Commission is working to ensure that these comrades return to the country as well."

This wave of releases is the second of the week. On Wednesday, 380 rebels of the Front for Alternation and Concord in Chad (FACT) had found freedom after also being pardoned. They had been sentenced to life in prison, among other things, for the "murder" at the front of former President Idriss Déby in 2021.

The opponent Succès Masra tempered these releases, especially those of the demonstrators. On his Twitter account, he explains that their only crime is to "have demanded justice and equality" and that "they do not even represent 25% of the arrested and missing persons whose release we still demand".

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Chad
  • Justice
  • Mahamat Idriss Déby