NDJAMENA, August 15, 2008 (AFP) - Chad's exiled former president Hissene Habre was condemned to death in his absence Friday by the criminal court in the capital Njdamena, judicial sources said.

Habre has lived in Senegal since 1991. He was toppled from power in 1990 after an eight-year reign during which thousands of Chadians were allegedly tortured.

An official truth commission report in 1992 accused Habre's regime of committing some 40,000 political murders -- of which only 4,000 victims have been officially named.