To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré

To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré

by Reed Brody
To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré

To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré

by Reed Brody

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Overview

What does it take to make a dictator answer for his crimes? Hissène Habré, the former despot of Chad, had terrorized, tortured, and killed on a horrific scale over eight bloody years in power—all while enjoying full American and Western support. After Habré’s overthrow, his victims and their supporters were determined to see him held responsible for his atrocities. Their quest for justice would be long, tense, and unnerving, but they would not back down.

To Catch a Dictator is a dramatic insider’s account of the hunt for Habré and his momentous trial. The human rights lawyer Reed Brody recounts how he and an international team of investigators, legal experts, and victims worked across three continents to unearth evidence and witnesses, petition courts and skeptical governments, and rally public opinion. They faced many obstacles and constant threats. One of Brody’s Chadian colleagues was gravely injured in a bomb attack, and another had to seek asylum in the United States. Habré fought back bitterly, drawing on secret bank accounts and extensive political connections to preserve his life of luxurious exile. Yet Brody and his allies ultimately triumphed: Habré became the first former head of state to be convicted of crimes against humanity in the courts of another country. This fast-paced, suspenseful book shows that there is nothing inevitable about the impunity that too often protects the powerful and that even the worst tyrants can be brought to justice.

The book also features a foreword by Jacqueline Moudeïna, the lead lawyer for Hissène Habré’s victims, who received the Right Livelihood Award (the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize”) in 2011.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780231202589
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication date: 11/15/2022
Pages: 296
Sales rank: 511,471
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Reed Brody worked for eighteen years alongside Hissène Habré’s victims on behalf of Human Rights Watch. He has helped pursue Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier of Haiti, and Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia. He also uncovered atrocities by U.S.-backed Contras in Nicaragua, led United Nations missions in El Salvador and the Congo, and exposed Bush-administration torture.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by Jacqueline Moudeïna
Prologue
Part I. Hissène Habré, an “African Pinochet”
1. Souleymane Guengueng
2. Hissène Habré
3. The Pinochet Precedent
4. A President Can Be Prosecuted
Part II. Building the Case
5. Politics Enters the Picture
6. The Terror Files
7. A Grenade Attack
8. Justice Comes to Chad
9. A Banana Republic?
10. Reed Brody’s Schedule
11. Habré Is Indicted, Again
12. The Caliph
13. A Senegalese Merchant
14. “Reed Bloody, a Hateful Jew”
15. Habrémania
16. Habrécadabra
17. The Trade Union of Heads of State
18. “On Behalf of Africa”
Part III. Building a Court
19. Mr. X
20. La France
21. Panic in Chad
22. An “Insider” Witness
23. “Hope Is the Last Thing to Vanish”
24. A Bizarre Decision
25. Backlash
26. “A Political and Legal Soap Opera”
27. “Hurricane Mimi”
28. “President Habré Has Been Kidnapped”
29. A Trial in Chad
Part IV. The Trial of Hissène Habré
30. Two Heart Attacks
31. Round One to Habré
32. “You Will Be Tried Whether You Like It or Not”
33. “From the Victims I Ask for Forgiveness”
34. Khadidja Tells Her Secret
35. The Man Who Runs Faster Than Death
36. Souleymane Testifies
37. The Verdict Is Announced
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index
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