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By Moumine Ngarmbassa

N'DJAMENA, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A death sentence passed by a Chadian court on former ruler Hissene Habre last week will not affect plans to try Habre in Senegal, Chadian Justice Minister Jean Bawoyeu Alingue said on Tuesday.

Senegal, where Habre has lived in exile since he was overthrown by now-President Idriss Deby in 1990, is preparing to try Habre on accusations of political killings and torture during his 1982-1990 rule in the central African country.

"This sentence is distinct from the affair for which he is being prosecuted and is pending before the Senegalese courts," Alingue told reporters in Chad's capital N'Djamena.

Habre was sentenced to death in absentia last week along with 11 leaders of eastern rebel groups who attacked the Chadian capital in February and besieged Deby's presidential palace before being driven back by Deby's army.

The 12 were convicted of threatening constitutional order and state security, but it was not immediately clear what crimes Habre had been sentenced for.

Senegalese Justice Minister Madicke Niang said at the weekend the sentence may affect the Senegalese prosecution if it covered the same alleged crimes, due to the legal principle of not trying someone twice for the same crime.

Chadian officials have not suggested they will seek Habre's extradition from Senegal, which was mandated to try him by the African Union after campaigners and victims sought to bring him to trial in Belgium.

"We expect the Senegalese courts to shed light on these cases in order to deliver justice to the thousands of victims who have waited for years for a resolution to this business," Alingue said on Tuesday.

Human rights groups and victims associations accuse Habre of instigating widespread political killings and torture during his 8-year rule in Chad, which has since become an oil producer.

"We would oppose his extradition back to Chad because we have said all along that we don't think he would get a fair trial in Chad," said Reed Brody, a lawyer with U.S. based Human Rights Watch who has assisted efforts to try Habre.

Habre and the 11 others, who included prominent eastern rebel leaders Mahamat Nouri and Timane Erdimi, whose fighters led the February assault on the capital, were convicted after a three-day mass trial in which they had no legal defence.

Campaigners say Habre's trial in Senegal would be the first time one developing nation has tried someone for human rights abuses in another.

Last month, Senegal lifted the final constitutional obstacle to the trial, a move welcomed by Human Rights Watch's Brody and other activists who have previously voiced concerns that after years of delays, Habre's alleged victims risk dying before he comes to trial. (Reporting by Moumine Ngarmbassa; writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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