The Transformers Party in Chad is urging President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno to grant a full pardon to its founder and political leader, Succès Masra.

Masra, who once served as Chad’s Prime Minister, was sentenced on August 9 to 20 years in prison and fined one billion CFA francs for allegedly spreading hateful and xenophobic messages and aiding murder during the Mandakao intercommunal conflict, which left 42 people dead in May. His legal team has until August 19 to appeal the ruling.

The opposition party views the conviction as a political setback and insists Masra is innocent. Ndolembai Njesada, the party’s vice-president in charge of political affairs, bilateral relations, and the diaspora, has appealed to the president to consider the country’s political climate and release the former prime minister.