Senegal to try Chad's Habre, the African Union says

BANJUL - Former Chadian President Hissene Habre will be tried on charges of political murder and torture in Senegal, where he lives, the African Union has said.

Legal experts advised African Union leaders Habre be tried in Africa, not Belgium which has requested his extradition.

"The African Union has dealt with this matter and decided that President Hissene Habre be judged in Senegal, and that his trial must be fair, transparent and just," Congo Republic President Denis Sasou Nguesso, who chairs the African Union, told a news conference at the end of an AU summit in Gambia.

A Chadian government inquiry accused Habre's government of 40,000 political killings and 200,000 cases of torture during his 1982-1990 rule.

Habre, who was ousted by President Idriss Deby in 1990, denies all knowledge of abuse and his lawyers say the Deby government's report was politically motivated.

A Senegalese court has ruled Habre cannot be tried there, but African legal experts said Senegal had a duty to try Habre under the international convention against torture.

The UN Committee Against Torture, whose verdicts have moral authority but no legal power, said in May that Senegal was breaking international human rights law by not taking action.

"I will ask the National Assembly of Senegal to amend the law so that the former president can be tried in Dakar," Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told reporters.

He said the African Union would fund the trial.

Habre's lawyer El Hadj Diouf welcomed the rejection of any extradition to Belgium, but said Senegal could not simply change its laws to charge Habre.

"Senegal has already decided on that question," he said. "Hissene Habre cannot be prosecuted in Senegal because he enjoys presidential immunity."

- REUTERS