/ 3 July 2007

Killers of Chad president’s son caught on video

The hooded killers of the Chadian president’s son were filmed on video surveillance cameras in the underground car park in France where his body was found, a judicial source said on Tuesday.

Brahim Déby was discovered dead in his car early on Monday near his home outside Paris. A post-mortem showed he was asphyxiated, probably by powder from a fire extinguisher.

The prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, which is handling the case, refused to comment on the video images, saying the investigation was still ongoing.

Le Monde newspaper reported that the video showed ”several hooded men” attack Déby as he drove into the garage shortly before 7am on Monday.

The paper added that Déby was accompanied by a woman, but that she has not yet been traced.

Chad President Idriss Déby Itno was believed to have wanted his son to succeed him, but this choice was widely unpopular, even by some of his own family, who viewed Brahim as unfit to govern.

The president sacked Brahim as his adviser in June 2006 after the then 27-year-old was arrested in a Paris discotheque for possessing an illegal firearm and drugs. He was given a six-month suspended sentence by a French court. — Reuters