Masra's lawyers argued that the court had no concrete evidence against him – copyright Ukrainian presidential press/AFP/File Handout, Sarah Myssonnier, Ilya PitaleV
A court in Chad imprisoned Masra for 20 years on Saturday, who stimulated hate speech, xenophobia and a massacre.
The court in N'djamena, one of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno's most violent critics, has arrested 42 people because of his role in the development between local violence, in which May 14.
Most massacre victims were women and children in Mandakao in the southwest chad according to the court. On Friday, the prosecutor asked for 25 years of prison.
“Our client was just the subject of a humiliation,” the senior defender Francis Kadjilembaye told AFP.
“He was condemned because of an empty dossier, based on assumptions and without evidence,” he added.
What we had seen, he said, was the gun of the dishes.
Activists with his Transformers Party said that they would give a “special news” on Saturday.
Masra was arrested and accused on May 16, two days after violence, “hatred, revolt, shape and complicity with armed gangs, complicity in murder, arson and disposal of graves”.
He was in court with almost 70 other men who were accused of participating in the murders.
– Presidential candidate –
Masra comes from Chads south and comes from the ethnic group of Ngambaye.
These groups feel marginalized by the mostly Muslim -dominated regime in the capital N'Djamena.
During the trial, Masra's lawyers argued that the court had no specific evidence against him.
He made a hunger strike in prison for almost a month in June and said his lawyers at the time.
Like other opposition leaders, Masra Chad left after a bloody procedure of his followers in 2022, which only returned under an amnesty in 2024.
Masra was trained as an economist in France and Cameroon and was a violent opponent of the governmental authorities before appointing him to Prime Minister five months before the presidential election.
He was Prime Minister from January to May last year after signing a reconciliation contract with Deby.
Masra competed against Deby in the 2024 presidential election and won 18.5 percent compared to 61.3 percent of Deby, but won the victory.
Of the murders on May 14th, a local source stated that he had emerged from a dispute between ethnic fulani nomads and local farmers in Ngambaye over the scattered and agricultural areas.
Conflicts between pastoralists and seated farmers are estimated by the international crisis group to have caused more than 1,000 deaths and 2,000 injuries in Chad between 2021 and 2024.