Habre in custody pending decision on extradition to Belgium

More than a decade after a Chadian truth commission accused Hissene Habre’s regime of murdering some 40,000 people, the ex-president on Tuesday was detained by authorities in Senegal, where he has lived in exile since 1990. Habre, who stands accused of crimes against humanity, was remanded in custody late Tuesday after being interrogated by a court in the capital, Dakar, examining a request for his extradition. Habre, dressed in white and bearing a solemn expression, gave a brief wave to onlookers as he was led out of the courtroom by a group of uniformed officers to an undisclosed location. His lawyer was not immediately available for comment. The detention of the former president comes almost two months after a Belgian court issued an international warrant for Habre’s arrest and extradition. The Senegalese court has eight days to say whether it will uphold the extradition request. Should it approve the Belgian request, it will be up to Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to decide whether to sign the extradition order. Senegal has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks by national and international human rights groups to turn over Habre, and victims of his alleged atrocities and their lawyers are guardedly optimistic at the long-awaited arrest. Jacqueline Moudeina, a lawyer for torture victims in Chad, told IRIN that Habre’s handover would be a strong message for Chad and for all of Africa. ”His extradition would open the door to the pursuit of all murderous dictators,” she said from the capital, N’djamena. Habre was president from 1982 to 1990, when he was toppled by the current president, Idriss Deby, and fled into exile in Senegal. A Chadian truth commission in 1992 accused the Habre administration of at least 40,000 acts of political assassination and torture. In 2000, a Senegalese court charged Habre with torture and crimes against humanity, but the following year the country’s highest court ruled that the ex-president could not be judged there for crimes allegedly perpetrated in another country. But in 2001, Chadian victims in Belgium filed suit against Habre and a Belgian court in September issued its warrant for his arrest under the country’s “universal jurisdiction” law, which allows for the prosecution for crimes against humanity anywhere. “This is not done,” said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, who for years has worked on behalf of victims. “But it looks like justice is finally catching up with him.” Moudeina - who still has shrapnel in her body from a 2001 grenade attack allegedly ordered by a Habre associate - said: “If he is finally judged, it will mean the end of impunity in Africa and especially in Chad. “Our fight is a fight against impunity, after all.”