Johannesburg – In an unprecedented move, the African Union (AU) has confirmed that it had ordered a court sitting in Senegal to try former Chadian President Hissene Habre for alleged crimes against humanity committed during his presidency between 1982 and 1990.
He is the first former Head of State to be tried in an ad hoc court that has been set up by Senegal and the AU after his arrest in 2013.
His trial will mean the first use of universal jurisdiction in Africa.
The AU Commission Director of Legal Counsel Professor Vincent Nmehielle, speaking on the sidelines of the 25th AU Summit in Johannesburg, said if the trial is successful, the model could be used as way to punish leaders on the continent accused of crimes against humanity instead of sending them to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The lCC has in the past been accused of specifically targeting African leaders to stand trial for alleged crimes. Some of the leaders the court has pursued include former President of Liberia Charles Taylor and the current Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. The ICC withdrew its case against Kenyatta in 2014.
But the trial of Habre, using the universal jurisdiction in Africa, could be a game changer and make it easy to bring to book African leaders indicted of crimes against humanity.
“Habre’s issue has been in the African Union for quite some time, following what is believed to be atrocities committed during his era as President. This is significant for us, for the first time the AU is involved in the trying of a former Head of State,” Nmehielle said.
The trial, which is set to begin in July, will be heard by a three-member panel, two Senegalese judges and a foreign lead judge from another African Union member state.
Habre, who fled to Senegal after being overthrown in 1990, denies killing and torturing tens of thousands of his opponents although in 2012, the UN's International Court of Justice ordered Senegal to put him on trial or extradite him to face justice in Belgium where three of his alleged victims had laid charges.
Following a lengthy back and forth legal process, in December 2012, the parliament of Senegal passed a law allowing for the creation of an international tribunal in Senegal to try Habre.
The judges of the tribunal would be appointed by the AU, and come from identified countries in Africa.
Nmehielle admitted that Habre’s case has proven that it is easy to try a former Head of State than a sitting President.
He dismissed suggestions that the practice of waiting for leaders to step down before they could be brought to justice may feed to the tendency by some of them to hold on to power to avoid prosecution.
Nmehielle explained that the process of the ad hoc African court will not be used as a witch hunt but leaders would be tried as and when there is evidence of atrocities committed by those leaders. – SAnews.gov.za
