“It has been agreed to create an ad hoc international court to try Mr Hissene Habre for crimes committed in Chad between 1982 and 1990”, a statement sent to the AFP bureau in Dakar said.
Habre sought refuge in Senegal after being overthrown in 1990 by the current Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno.
“The government of the republic of Senegal and the African Union will sign as soon as possible an agreement defining the modalities of the establishment of the said court,” the statement said.
The procedures relating to this ad hoc international court “will be conducted on the basis of the (financial) resources mobilised during a donors’ round table” organised in Dakar in November 2010.
The international community at that time promised to contribute 8.5 million euros ($12 million) to finance the trial of Habre.
The decision to set up the ad hoc court followed a meeting in Addis Ababa, home to AU headquarters, on Wednesday and Thursday between members of the AU Commission and Senegal government representatives, the statement said.
At the meeting it was agreed that to speed up the establishment of the court a second meeting would be held in Dakar during the last week in April.
In July 2006 the AU asked Senegal to put Habre on trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade agreed but no legal proceedings were initiated.
Then Wade handed the case back to the African Union.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had ruled in November that Senegal could not alone try Habre for crimes against humanity, but said a special tribunal could be used.
“The President of the Republic has informed cabinet that the ECOWAS court considers that Senegal cannot try the former Chadian president,” said a statement in January.
“He has thus committed to implement this decision by handing the Habre dossier back to the African Union.”
Senegalese Foreign Minister Madicke Niang said recently that his country had turned down an AU suggestion that it create a “special jurisdiction”.