September 9, 2014: The Chadian government adopted on September 5 a penal code aimed at abolishing the death penalty, Minister of Communication and government spokesman Hassan Sylla Bakari announced after an inter-ministerial meeting held in N’Djamena.





Bakari said "the death penalty will be replaced by life imprisonment with no possibility of conditional release in future." Bakari added it had become necessary for the country to modernize its laws in the political, social, cultural, economic and diplomatic areas.





It is worth noting that although Chad has had the death penalty in its laws, there have been no reported executions since November 2003, when 9 men were executed within a period of 4 days, although they had not exhausted their appeals. Four of the nine men had been found guilty two weeks earlier of assassinating a Sudanese politician and businessman. The other five executed men had been sentenced for unrelated murders and assassinations.





In November 2012, Chad was targeted by a mission of Hands off Cain and the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty (NRPTT), aimed at favouring the abolitionist process internally and obtaining a favourable vote on the UN Resolution for the universal moratorium on executions.





Sources: Xinhua, Sept. 5, 2014; Cameroon Tribune, Sept. 10, 2014; HOC, Sept 11, 2014