Chad's former dictator Hissene Habre was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for abuses during his time in power, Judge Gberdao Gustave Kam said Monday at the end of the trial that began in July 2015. Cheers, whoops of joy and tears greeted the judge's ruling from scores of Habre's former prisoners who hugged each other in the courtroom. Habre's trial by the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese courts began in July last year. It is the first trial in which the courts of one country are prosecuting the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes. More than 90 witnesses testified. Habre was convicted of being responsible for thousands of deaths and tortures in prisons during his rule from 1982 to 1990. A 1992 Chadian Truth Commission accused Habre's government of systematic torture, saying that 40,000 people died during his rule. It placed particular blame on his political police force. The ex-dictator, who has lived in Senegal's capital, Dakar, since fleeing Chad in 1990, has denounced his trial as being politically motivated. He and his supporters have disrupted proceedings several times with shouting and singing. He refused legal representation but the court appointed him Senegalese lawyers. Chad's government, led by President Idriss Deby, who served as Habre's military adviser before pushing him from power, supported the trial.
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