In Chad, an army colonel sentenced to 5 years in prison for assault and battery briefly escaped from a courtroom.
The action was orchestrated primarily by armed women who had come to attend the hearing. This happened during the deliberation of the sentence. Extremely serious facts, according to the Bar Association, and deemed inadmissible by the Minister of Justice Keeper of the Seals.
Abdoulaye Ahmat Haroun is an army colonel arrested last August for a fight that ended in a mechanic death. The death of the artisan had caused unrest at the yarn field market in the 5th district of the Chadian capital, N’Djamena. Sentenced to 5 years in prison; the colonel left the defendants’ box upon announcement of the verdict and returned to his family. He was immediately loaded into a vehicle by his family and taken to an unknown destination.
“The women [who extricated him] had weapons of war. They had Kalashnikovs and FAMAS under the veil,” testifies Max Louangar, who was present at the time of the events.
The lawyer believes that this is inadmissible and confirms the configuration of a two-speed justice system. The Chadian Bar Association contacted by BBC Africa confirms that it has decided to suspend its activities throughout the country until further notice in protest against this incident.
Chad’s Minister of Justice, Djimet Arabi, described the “escape” as unacceptable and told BBC Afrique’s Chad correspondent in Chad, Vincent Niébédé, that “young people and women simulated a fight” to facilitate the escape.
He added that the police eventually caught the colonel “with five accomplices, hidden in a house”. This was the second time that Colonel Abdoulaye Ahmat Haroun tried to escape justice. On 9 August, while in detention, he managed to board a plane bound for Egypt. Prosecutors ordered the plane to return to N’Djamena, where he was arrested upon landing.
The question that many people are asking is precisely how people equipped with weapons of war were able to gain access to the courtroom despite the courthouse’s security arrangements.
Source: BBC
