Chad: 259 pardoned protesters released

After over 5 months in prison 259 Chadian protestors who were pardoned in late March were released Saturday (Apr. 08).

According to the coordinator of their lawyers' collective, the former inmates left the Moussoro prison located some 300 km east of Ndjamena and arrived home.

It is the end of an ordeal for mostly young people who took part in the October 20, 2022 protests known as Black Thursday.

On that day, thousands of Chadians marched accross the country following a call by the opposition denouncing the extension of the "transition" for two years.

The move maintained in power Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno who took the reins of the country after his father’s death.

The government had acknowledged the arrest of 601 people in Ndjamena - including some 80 minors.

A court in a high-security desert prison then sentenced 262 people to two to three years in prison after a mass trial with no lawyers.

About 80 others, out of 401 people on trial were given one to two years' suspended prison sentences, and 59 were acquitted.

Those convicted were found guilty of among other charges "unauthorised assembly, destruction of property and arson".

The opposition and NGOs had also denounced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and torture.