DAKAR (AFP) — Lawyers for Hissene Habre dismissed Tuesday as "judicial persecution" a new lawsuit against the former Chadian president accusing him of crimes against humanity and torture during his time in office.
The document filed in Dakar on September 16 by a group of Senegalese and Chadian nationals accuses Habre focuses on allegations of torture carried out by the police during his 1982-1990 presidency.
"The judicial persecution of the former president continues with a third complaint (made) in Senegal," his lawyers Francois Serres and El Hadj Diouf said in a statement.
Habre was toppled from power in 1990 and eventually fled to Senegal after an eight-year reign during which thousands of Chadians were allegedly tortured.
An official truth commission report in 1992 accused Habre's regime of committing some 40,000 political murders.
No case has been opened as yet. Dakar estimates it will need as much as 27 million euros (39.7 dollars) to bring the case to court, an amount judged to be too high by the country's creditors.
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