Senegalese police detained Chadian former dictator Hissene Habre in Dakar, Senegal, on Saturday — a day after he was released because a court was unable to rule on a Belgian extradition request.
”It is not an arrest for expulsion,” said Habre’s lawyer, Doudou Ndoye, who accused the government of violating the former president’s human rights.
He said Habre, who is wanted in Belgium on charges relating to atrocities committed during his 1982-1990 rule, was taken to the police criminal-investigation division under an arrest warrant issued by the interior ministry.
The advocate said Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom had decided that the exiled former dictator be ”put at the disposal of the president of the African Union” within 48 hours, but this has not been confirmed by official sources.
The current head of the AU is Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was in Valetta on Saturday attending the Commonwealth summit.
Habre was later taken to his home by police, who were later seen by a photographer for news agency AFP leaving the premises without him.
Ndoye said Habre was taken to his home to ”make an inventory of his belongings”.
Speaking to local private radio station Radio Futurs Medias from police custody, Habre complained that his arrest was politically motivated and he had nothing to hide.
”Personally, I think that this is a political measure,” he said. ”I spent a very nice night. I was relaxed, everything was going well. I am calm because I know the law is with me.”
He refused to comment on the reasons for his latest arrest, which remained unclear. A government spokesperson was to give a press conference later on Saturday.
On Friday, Habre had been released after 10 days in custody when a Senegal court disqualified itself from ruling on the extradition request from Belgium.
The prosecution chamber of the Dakar Court of Appeals declared itself ”not competent” to rule whether to issue an extradition order for 63-year-old Habre, who has lived in exile in Senegal for 15 years.
The former president known as ”Africa’s Pinochet” is wanted by Belgium to face trial for alleged mass murder and torture under a law that allows Belgian courts to try cases of human rights abuses in other countries.
A truth-commission report in 1992 said his regime was responsible for about 40 000 political murders, of whom 4 000 victims have been officially named.
The charges he is being asked to face in Belgium were filed in 2000 by Belgians of Chadian origin who were victims of atrocities committed by Habre’s intelligence services.
Belgium has said that if the extradition attempt fails, it has other tools to bring Habre to justice, such as the United Nations convention on torture. — Sapa-AFP