Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader Succes Masra was placed in provisional detention Wednesday nearly a week after his arrest on suspicion of inciting hatred, his lawyers said.
Masra faced off against President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno in presidential elections a year ago, winning 18.5 percent against Deby’s 61.3 percent but claimed victory.
One of Deby’s fiercest opponents, Masra was arrested on May 16 accused of inciting hatred in connection with deadly clashes in the southwest of the country.
He faces several charges that also include revolt, forming and being complicit with armed groups, complicity in murder and arson.
His lawyers said that Masra, who has been in police custody since his arrest, had been brought before a public prosecutor and an investigating judge, who ordered his provisional detention.
Two days before his arrest, violence claimed the lives of 42 people, mostly women and children, in Mandakao in the Logone-Occidental region, legal officials have said.
One local source said that the cause of the violence was thought to be a dispute between ethnic Fulani nomadic herders and local Ngambaye farmers over the demarcation of grazing and farming areas.
Conflicts between pastoralists and sedentary farmers are estimated by the International Crisis Group to have caused more than 1,000 deaths and 2,000 injuries between 2021 and 2024.
Masra, who comes from the south, is ethnic Ngambaye and enjoys wide support in the region, whose people are mostly Christian and animist and complain of being marginalised by the mostly Muslim central government.
His party, The Transformers, had initially said that Masra had been abducted from his home in the early morning.
A post by the party featured an unverified video showing him leaving his residence surrounded by around a dozen armed men in military uniform.
The party said it planned to hold a news conference later Wednesday on the latest legal development.
‘State lie’
His supporters say that an audio message presented by the authorities as evidence against Masra dates from two years ago.
“It is clear that this is a setup and an extremely crude state lie… concocted by a government scared of the popularity” of Masra, his supporters said in a statement at the weekend.
They added that he was the real winner of last year’s vote.
The 41-year-old economist, who trained in France and Cameroon, was a fierce opponent of the ruling authorities before they named him prime minister five months ahead of the presidential election.
He served as premier from January to May last year after returning from exile and signing a reconciliation deal with Deby.
Like other opposition figures, Masra had fled after the army and police opened fire on demonstrators protesting an extension of the political transition under the ruling junta in October 2022.
Up to 300 young people died according to international NGOs — 50, according to the junta.
