In Chad, the verdict fell on March 21, 2023, in the appeal trial of the 454 members of the Front for alternation and concord in Tchad arrested after the death of former President Idriss Déby. The majority of these rebels are sentenced to life imprisonment in particular for acts of terrorism, enlistment of minors, attack on national security, and attack on the life of the Head of State. Twenty-four defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The collective of defendants’ lawyers has already announced its intention to appeal to the Court of Cassation.
It was behind closed doors, in Klessoum prison, the Ndjamena remand center, that the decision of the court of appeal was pronounced in the presence of the five lawyers assigned to this sprawling case.
Following six weeks of hearings, the judges, therefore, sentenced the majority of the defendants to life imprisonment, who are detained but also out of habit, one of the executives of Fact, Mahamat Mahdi Ali, explains Master Francis Lokouldé, one lawyer for the defendants: “The Court of Appeal has just delivered its verdict. It entered into sentencing Mahamat Mahdi and more than 400 other defendants to life imprisonment. »