In Chad, 139 prisoners were released after the hearings held at the end of November and the beginning of December by demonstrators on October 20 against the extension of the transition. Among those released from Koro-Toro, a prison in the middle of the desert 600 km from the capital, 59 detainees were released for unconstitutional offenses and the 80 suspended sentences arrived in Ndjamena on Sunday 11 December.
With our correspondent in Ndjamena, Madjiasra Nako
This Sunday at the end of the day, two large trucks entered the courtyard of the Ministry of Justice. The hundred people descended, bundled up in gray sweaters, others wearing hats of the same color. These clothes were sewn from a roll of survival blanket made available by the Red Cross to fight against the freezing cold of the Chadian desert.
Mahamat Allamine Al-Rachid, second deputy public prosecutor at the Ndjamena court, explains the circumstances of this release:
” In accordance with the decisions rendered by the High Court of Ndjamena, these people at the public hearing in Koro Toro, today, the 139 people are brought back to Ndjamena and are provided with their final release order. And from this instance, they are free to return to their families. »
Then the prison manager proceeds to call the former prisoners.
Very few families were there to welcome them, some had to manage on their own to return home. There are still 265 people detained in Koro Toro: the council of the bar association asks that they be brought back to the capital to the appeal procedure.