political police

“The ‘political police’ have been pushing their witch hunt since President Trump came down the escalator, and they’ve been proven wrong every single time,” he added.

Habre's rule, which began with a coup, saw widespread killings by his infamous political police who rounded up suspects and held them in secret detention centres.

It was almost midnight Christmas Eve when veteran Algerian journalist Ihsane el-Kadi was taken by plain-clothes police officers from his home and driven to the headquarters of the political police in the capital, Algiers.

Aida Touma-Sliman, a Palestinian-Israeli lawmaker, told the committee discussing the bill that the incoming minister’s goals were “ideological” and “racist” and would end up creating a “political police.”

In 1992, a national truth commission estimated that he and his political police were responsible for systematic torture and the deaths of 40,000 Chadians.