[ 2011-07-10 ]

UN rights chief urges Senegal to review Habre move
GENEVA (AFP) - UN human rights chief Navi Pillay
on Sunday urged Senegal to reconsider sending
Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre back to his
home country to face justice for alleged
atrocities.

"I urge the government of Senegal to review its
decision," Pillay said in a statement, adding
guarantees should at the very least be obtained
that Habre would not be subjected to torture or
the death penalty and would get a fair trial.

Habre Habre ruled Chad from 1982 and fled to
Senegal in 1990, when he was overthrown by
incumbent President General Idriss Deby Itno.

A 1992 truth commission report in Chad said Habre
had presided over 40,000 political murders and
widespread torture.

In 2008, a court there sentenced him to death for
crimes against humanity in a trial held in his
absence.

The former dictator had spent two decades in exile
in Senegal, which has announced it would sent him
home on a private plane on Monday.

"As a party to the Convention Against Torture,
Senegal may not extradite a person to a state
where there are substantial grounds for believing
he would be in danger of being subjected to
torture," Pillay said.

"At the very least Senegal must obtain fair trial
guarantees from the government of Chad before any
extradition takes place."

Source - AFP

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