Islamic Human Rights Commission
NIGERIA DIGEST 21 OCTOBER 2017 (Volume 1 Issue 7)
Introduction
Action Alert
Articles and Resources Digest
Introduction
Welcome to the Nigeria Digest. In this issue you will find an overview of the last week’s events, including insight into proceedings of Presidential Investigation Panel. The situation is quite fluid regarding the panel, with accusations of bias against it. Please follow the IHRC website and the weekly digest to see updates as to whether Sheikh Zakzaky will be allowed to testify in camera.
This week the action alert asks campaigners to demand the Commonwealth intervene in this case to ensure the immediate release of the Sheikh and all of those unjustly imprisoned.
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Free Zakzaky!
Action Alert: Nigeria – Demand Commonwealth intervene in Zakzaky case
1. Write to the Commonwealth and demand they intervene in this case by writing to the secretary general Baroness Scotland QC, a model letter / email is provided below
2. If you receive a response please forward it to IHRC at info@ihrc.org
Your name:
Your address:
Date:
Baroness Scotland QCMarlborough House
Pall Mall
London
SW1Y 5HX
Dear Baroness Scotland QC,
Sheikh Zakzaky and the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
I am writing to you to ask for your urgent intervention to help halt the continuing persecution of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) by state authorities. Since the shooting of the IMN’s leader Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky in December 2015 the situation has progressively deteriorated for the movement and its supporters.
In addition to the massacres of December 2015, and the hundreds of detentions without charge, or arrests and sentences based on trumped up charges, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky the movement’s leader and Mallimah Zeenah remain imprisoned without charge despite a court order demanding their release from December 2016.
I am sure you agree that this is a most terrible state of affairs, and that the Commonwealth Secretariat must intervene to ensure that these injustices are rectified immediately.
Given the Commonwealth’s past actions in imposing sanctions on Nigeria, I urge your office to once more sanction the government of Nigeria until such a time as their political process returns to some form of democratic practice and accountability.
Further, I demand appropriate sanctions be placed against Nigeria for its continued violations of basic human rights norms in this and other cases.
I look forward to hearing from you regarding the action your office will take in this matter.
Yours sincerely,
[Your signature if posting / scanning / faxing]
Your name
ARTICLES AND RESOURCES
Sheikh Zakzaky to Testify in Camera before the Presidential Panel on Army, as Observers Berate Secret Hearings
19 October 2017 by # FreeZakzaky Campaign Committe
The Presidential Investigation Panel on Compliance of The Armed Forces with Human Rights Obligations & Rules of Engagement has agreed to allow the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikhh Ibraheem Zakzaky to give an oral testimony in Abuja in camera. At the resumed sitting held in the Premises of the High Court of Kaduna State on the 18th of October 2017, the Petition filed by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) came up for hearing and the immediate challenge was whether or not Sheikhh Zakzaky would be allowed to give his testimony before the Panel.
Counsel to the Movement, Mr. Maxwell Kyon Esq. who led two other lawyers in the matter, informed the Panel that he had filed an application before it praying for its direction requiring the production of Sheikh Zakzaky to testify before the Panel. He also prayed the Panel for a direction deferring the hearing of the petition filed on behalf of the IMN to Abuja for hearing. Mr. Kyon pointed out that the first arm of his application had become necessary in view of the fact that it would be against the tenets of fair hearing for the panel to determine the petition without hearing from the leader of the Movement…
IHRC Press Release: Probe into army abuses is incomplete without Zakzaky testimony
18 October 2017 By Islamic Human Rights Commission
Lawyers for the leader of the embattled Islamic Movement of Nigeria have called on the government body set up to review cases of human rights abuses by the military to allow him to address the panel.
The Presidential Investigation Panel on Review of Compliance of Armed Forces with Human Rights Obligations and Rules of Engagement began proceedings on September 11 to investigate the countless allegations of war crimes by the country’s armed forces but to date there has been no indication that it will allow IMN leader Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky to testify…
Tweets demanding Sheikh Zakzaky testimony
18 October 2017
Let #Zakzaky Speak at the pres investigative Panel of @HQNigerianArmy HR-Violations as his Lawyers demanded @ProfOsinbajo @Abdulqadeeradam
https://t.co/qX5CrIdUjp
Lawyers of Sh #Zakzaky demands Sh #Zakzaky to speak at the presidential investigative panel @MobilePunch @UN @ELBINAWI @hrw @RT_com
https://t.co/mNShkm2YmP
The Presidential investigative panel set to investigate the @HQNigerianArmy HR-Violations will be bias if we did not hear from #Zakzaky @hrw
https://t.co/Rl9Vd5ZTr0
Islamic Movement appears before the Presidential Investigative Panel despite early warning signs that panel may not be fair
16 October 2017 By FreeZakzaky Campaign Committe
The Presidential Investigation Panel to investigate cases of Military abuses by the Military has commenced sitting today Monday 16th July 2017 in Kaduna as scheduled.
After an initial delay, which the Panel later explained was due to some logistics of securing adequate place to sit, the sitting went underway in the premises of the state High Court, Kaduna.
There was the opening remarks by the Chairman of the Panel, Hon Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill, JCA entitled “Justice Shall Be Done To All” in which he explained why the panel was set up and what their terms of reference are. He further outlined how they intended to go about their assignment. It was clear from his remarks that the scope of the panel is quite limited.
The first to make presentation were some Red Cross officials and that was done in camera, as people were sent out to enable them make their presentations. This was a direct contradiction of what the Chairman appeared to suggest earlier that their sittings would be open…
Articles that seem to scratch the surface and make IMN feel like orphans
15 October 2017 By #FreeZakzaky Campaign Committee
The article below about American Lawyers Announcing a collection of evidence to prosecute Nigeria’s President Buhari and his Army Commander, Lt. General Buratai in the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity, based on “Operation Python Dance II” will make every member of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria feel like an orphan immediately.
This is because a larger scale and much more horrendous crime against humanity was earlier carried out under the command responsibility of the President, Mohammadu Buhari and General Yusuf Buratai against a community of religious minority without a concomitant reaction from such quarters. In fact, the conspiracy of silence in that case, including from established mainstream world Media outlets was deafening.
The lone voice was from the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, who managed to take up the matter to the ICC, that secured a mention of “preliminary investigation” from the World Justice body. However, the reality that the persecution and crimes against the Islamic Movement is continuing and shows no signs of abating in spite of the ICC pronouncement will suggest that if these other groups and lawyers now feeling similarly treated had stood firm in support of IMN up to the ICC, perhaps it would have served as deterrent and their wards would not have been targeted by the same culprits. Even then, it would have further their case in the ICC had they also chronicled earlier cases and evidences to pin both Buhari and Burutai, who are criminally culpable in all these crimes against humanity.
Read the article below…
American Lawyers Announce Collection of Evidence to Prosecute Nigeria’s President Buhari and Lt. General Buratai in the International Criminal Court for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity
15 October 2017 By FEIN & amp; DELVALLE PLLC
WASHINGTON, D.C.–On behalf of Biafrans who covet justice—the dead, the living, and those yet to be born—the law firm of Fein & DelValle PLLC is drafting a criminal indictment against Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusfu Buratai, for genocide and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Buhari and Buratai are criminally culpable because of their command responsibility over security forces operating under their direction or control and who are terrorizing tens of millions of Biafrans specifically because of their Christianity and ethnicity. The crimes include extrajudicial killings, torture, and sister unspeakable horrors. They are the grisly signature of Buhari’s and Buratai’s ongoing military campaign in the South East region…
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IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom
Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Email: info@ihrc.org
Web:www.ihrc.org
The opinions expressed in this email do not necessarily reflect the views of IHRC
