Coronavirus: prison leave granted to Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre

Habre, who ruled in the 1980s, was convicted for crimes against humanity after an inquiry estimated his regime had killed 40,000 people

A defiant Hissene Habre, ex-dictator of Chad, leaving court after an identity hearing on June 3, 2015. AFP

A Senegalese judge granted Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre two months' leave from prison, where he is serving life for crimes against humanity, because the jail is being used to hold new detainees in coronavirus quarantine.

Habre, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at an African Union-backed trial in the Senegalese capital Dakar in 2016.

A Chadian commission of inquiry estimated 40,000 people were killed by his regime.

After he was overthrown, Habre fled to Senegal and for more than 20 years lived freely in an upmarket Dakar suburb with his wife and children.

Called "Africa's Pinochet", Habre was arrested in 2013 and tried by a special tribunal set up by the African Union under a deal with Senegal.

His trial set a global precedent as the first time a country had prosecuted the former leader of another nation for rights abuses, and was seen as a pioneering example of African rights abuses being tried on the continent.

Since his conviction, the ex-leader in his late 70s has been serving his sentence in a prison in Cap Manuel, at the tip of the peninsula where Dakar is located.

His lawyer Mamadou Diawara had requested 60 days' leave for Habre as he was "particularly vulnerable" to the coronavirus pandemic because of his age, according to the judge's order.

Judge Boubacar Ndiaye said the Cap Manuel prison had been selected by the Senegalese authorities to hold newly arrested detainees in solitary confinement while they are under quarantine to avoid the possible spread of Covid-19 in jail.

He granted a 60-day temporary leave to Habre, to be served at his home in Ouakam, a district of Dakar, and ordered him to return to prison on its expiry.

An association of victims of his regime last week said "the health crisis should not be used as an excuse for the early release of Hissene Habre".

Senegal has registered 226 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and two deaths.