Chad yesterday sentenced 10 members of the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram to death on terror charges.
The development is a clear sign of a working judicial system unlike Nigeria where hundreds of Boko Haram suspect rot in detention.
The country where the sect operates from has secured insignificant prosecutions even though it regularly arrests Boko Haram fighters.
But just after a three-day trial in the capital N’Djamena, the 10 were convicted over their roles in twin attacks on the capital in June, which killed at least 38.
BBC reports that the attacks were the first by the Nigerian-based group in Chad, which hosts the headquarters of a regional force set up to fight the militants.
In July, Chad reintroduced the death penalty for acts of terror.
The men were found guilty of charges including criminal conspiracy, killings, wilful destruction with explosives, fraud, illegal possessions of arms and ammunition, and using psychotropic substances, according to chief prosecutor Bruno Mahouli Louapambe.
The trial would have lasted eight days, but “due to security reasons it was speeded up and moved on Thursday to an undisclosed secret location,” a judicial source told AFP.
Among those convicted was Mahamat Mustapha, aka Bana Fanaye, the man described as the “mastermind” of the attack by Chad’s Interior Minister Abderahim Bireme Hamid.
The June attacks were followed by a blast at a market in the capital in July, which killed 15 people.
Chad has banned people from wearing the full-face veil following the bombings.
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