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| - Chad prosecutors dropped charges against a former premier and a rights activist arrested last month in cases critics had dismissed as unjust or politically motivated, lawyers said on Wednesday. Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet, Chad's premier from 2013-2016, was detained for suspected graft while activist Mahamat Nour Ahmed Ibedou was detained on murder charges. Deubet who was arrested at the start of December, has been cleared of any charges by the country's supreme court, his lawyer Alain Kagonbe told AFP. "All the moves against my client fell apart and the truth came out, because he was cleared," the lawyer said. An attorney for Ibedou, chief of the Chadian Convention for the Protection of Human Rights (CTDDH), said his case has been dismissed. Chadian press said it was related to the murder of a young girl, but the investigation was criticised by an international attorney association. "We considered there are no charges against Ibedou and the investigating judge followed our request," deputy public prosecutor Gerard Nedeou told AFP. Chad President Idriss Deby, who has governed the poor, oil-rich state since 1990, last year vowed to crack down on entrenched graft. The landlocked country has a history of political violence and corruption. It was ranked 165th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index. yas-dwi/js/pma/cdw
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