Chad’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by opposition leader and former Prime Minister Succ\u00e8s Masra, effectively confirming that he will remain in prison.<\/p>\n
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Masra was sentenced in August 2025 to 20 years in jail after being convicted of “spreading messages of hatred and xenophobia” and “complicity in murder”. The Supreme Court’s ruling leaves him with no further legal avenues of appeal, although a presidential pardon remains a possibility.<\/p>\n
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The decision comes amid heightened political tensions in Chad, where authorities have intensified their crackdown on opposition figures. Earlier this month, eight opposition leaders were sentenced to eight years in prison on charges including insurrection.<\/p>\n
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Masra, one of Chad’s most prominent opposition politicians, has long been a vocal critic of the government and has maintained a significant support base, particularly among young people and urban voters.<\/p>\n
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The latest court ruling is likely to deepen concerns among opposition groups and civil society organisations about political freedoms and democratic space in the country.<\/p>\n
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Speaking after the decision, members of Chad’s civil society called for respect for the rule of law and urged authorities to promote political dialogue as a way of easing tensions.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12536,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-35198","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Chad's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by opposition leader and former Prime Minister Succ\u00e8s Masra","published_date":"2026-05-23 08:31:21","news_description":"Chad's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by opposition leader and former Prime Minister Succ\u00e8s Masra","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35199,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35198\/revisions\/35199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}