The United States has classified the leader
of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and his wife,
Zeenah, as political prisoners.
This is according to the 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices issued by the US State Department on Tuesday.
The report read in part, “Political
prisoners and detainees. IMN’s leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, and his spouse
remained in detention. In 2018 the Kaduna State Government charged Zakzaky in
state court with multiple felonies stemming from the death of a soldier at
Zaria.”
The Islamic cleric was arrested in December
2015 after soldiers clamped down on his supporters, killing at least 347 of
them, including his children. The army accused them of blocking a public road
being used then by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai.
He was detained without trial for several
months without trial causing his lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), to file a suit
before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
In December 2016, Justice Gabriel Kolawole
ordered that El-Zakzaky and his wife be released from detention into an
accommodation that must be provided for them within 45 days.
Justice Kolawole awarded N25m each,
totalling N50m, to the Shi’ite leader and his wife for the violation of their
rights by being held in unlawful custody.
He ordered the Federal Government to
provide a befitting accommodation for the applicants, their family members and
followers who used to live with them before they were arrested, within the 45
days period. The judge ordered that the accommodation must be provided in
Zaria, Kaduna State, or in other part of the state or alternatively in any
other part of northern Nigeria.
The Federal Government, however, ignored
the judgment.
He remained in custody for another 17
months until he was arraigned by the Kaduna State Government in April 2018 on
eight counts bordering on culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption
of public peace, among others. However, no army officer was brought to book for
the killings.
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