Lawyers in Chad have vowed to stop work during a mass trial, due to start Tuesday, of more than four hundred people detained over deadly anti-government protests.
Officially, around fifty people — including ten members of the security forces — died when police opened fire on demonstrators in the capital N’Djamena and several other cities on October 20.
But opposition groups say the actual toll was much higher, with unarmed civilians massacred.
The trial of the 401 detainees is set to run until December 4 inside the high-security prison of Koro Toro in the middle of the desert, more than six hundred kilometers (370 miles) northeast of the capital.
Prosecutors say the accused faces several charges including taking part in an unauthorized gathering, destroying belongings, arson, and disturbing public order.
According to the public prosecutor, 621 people were arrested in N’Djamena after the protests, all of whom were transferred to Koro Toro.
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Investigations are ongoing for the 220 other people, including eighty-three minors, it said.
The Chad Bar Association in a statement lashed the trial as “parody of justice.”
The detainees had been “kidnapped” and “deported” to Koro Toro in the absence of any lawyers, it said.
The trial in the remote prison “violates procedural regulations,” it said.
Members of the association “have decided to stop all activity” for the duration of the trial, it said.
Opposition groups had encouraged protests on October 20 to mark the date when the ruling military had initially promised to cede power — a timeline General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has now extended by two years.
The 38-year-old general accused the demonstrators of “insurrection” and attempting to stage a coup. Â
He took power when his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled for 30 years, died during an operation against rebels in April 2021.
