Eight Chad opposition leaders jailed for eight years: lawyer

Eight Chadian opposition leaders arrested at the end of last month were jailed for eight years on Friday, their lawyer told AFP, the latest detentions of President Mahamat Idriss Deby's critics.

The defendants, all members of the only political movement to have systematically challenged Deby's election, had been detained in the capital N'Djamena a week before a "protest and indignation march" that was banned by the government.

They were taken into custody pending the outcome of a judicial investigation into "criminal association, rebellion and illegal possession of weapons of war".

"We are not surprised but are disappointed by the court's decision, which is based on non-existent offences," said the defendants' lawyer, Moussa Adoum.

He said they would be requesting the case be taken to the criminal court of appeal in N'Djamena, "so that the court can rule without political pressure".

Since coming to power following the death of his long-ruling father Idriss Deby Itno at the hands of rebels, Deby has overseen the jailing of many of his main rivals.

Top opposition leader Succes Masra, a former prime minister, was sentenced to 20 years for "incitement to hatred" in May 2025, following a trial Human Rights Watch denounced as politically motivated.

Masra's Transformers party had called for the eight opposition leaders' liberation in early May at a rally in support of their jailed leader, during which the security forces killed a protester.

Supreme Court ban

Friday's sentences come a day after the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of their GCAP movement, which brings together 13 political parties and civil society representatives.

The GCAP was vocal in calling for a boycott of the ballot that saw Deby elected president in May 2024, three years after he took power on an interim basis after his father's death at the front.

In mid-April, the movement launched a call on social media for Chadians to protest against "injustice, exclusion and for the re-establishment of our rights, our liberties and of justice".

And in October, the coalition slammed the "climate of terror" caused by "intimidation" and "threats", on top of the authorities' bans on demonstrations and public meetings.

Early in the same month, Chad's parliament passed a constitutional revision allowing the president unlimited seven-year terms by a landslide.

The tinkering, which the opposition slammed as "authoritarian", could allow Deby to remain in power for life and surpass his slain father's 30-year-long rule.