A court in Chad has sentenced opposition leader and former Prime Minister Succes Masra to 20 years in jail after he was convicted of inciting communal violence in which more than 40 people were killed in the southwest in May.
The special criminal chamber in Chad's capital N'djamena convicted Masra of hate speech, xenophobia and inciting a massacre, Francis Kadjilembaye, one of the defence lawyers, told reporters on Saturday.
The court also ordered Masra to pay a fine of 1 billion West African CFA francs ($1.8 million).
Masra denied the charges during the trial.
Masra denied charges
His lawyers argued that the prosecution failed to present concrete evidence that implicated Masra.
The prosecution had asked last Friday for 25 years in prison.
He was tried along with 74 co-defendants who were accused of participating in the massacre.
Masra, the leader of Chad's main opposition party, Les Transformateurs (Transformers), was arrested on May 16 following inter-communal violence in Logone Occidental province that killed 42 people on May 14.
Ran against President Deby in 2024 elections
He went on a hunger strike in July to protest his detention. He ended the hunger strike after nearly a week following a protest by women who demanded his release.
Masra ran in the May 2024 presidential election, which was won by then-transitional President Mahamat Idriss Deby.
