The trial of some 401 demonstrators arrested during the violently repressed demonstrations of October 20 begins on Tuesday. Hearings are held at Koro-Toro high security prison.
It is a mega-trial in terms of size and stakes, believes Me Daïnomé Frédéric, president of the Collective for the Defense of Persons Arrested Following the Events of October 20. He evokes a lawsuit historical “. Organized within the framework of a flagrance procedure, it nevertheless takes place without the defense lawyers, who have decided to boycott a procedure described as ” parody of justice by the Chadian Bar.
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Of the 620 people whom the Chadian government acknowledges having transferred » in Koro Toro, 401 are therefore now in the dock. All appear in particular for “unauthorized assembly, destruction of property, arson or even assault”. The charges carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Originally, the Chadian government had accused them of insurrection and attempted coups, crimes which are punishable by a sentence ranging from 20 years in prison to life.
The approximately 200 other detainees placed in Koro Toro for the same reason are still the subject of a judicial investigation, according to the Ndjamena prosecutor. But despite the holding of this extraordinary trial, the question of the hundreds of people arrested on October 20 and the days that followed and who would be detained in other places, according to human rights organizations, remains unresolved. . The government has remained silent on this subject.
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