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Alert: Write to your Foreign Minister to put pressure on the Nigerian authorities

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Alert: Write to your Foreign Minister to put pressure on the Nigerian authorities

29 June 2021

Background

Action required

Model email

Recipient addresses

Background

The court hearing to dismiss the case against Sheikh Zakzaky and Mualima Zeenah will resume on the 1^st July 2021. The pair has been enduring a continually disrupted and delayed hearing to dismiss a case initiated against them in Kaduna.

The Sheikh and his wife have been kept in unlawful detention for over five years. The Federal High Court of Nigeria, the highest court in Nigeria, has ordered the Sheikh and his wife’s release, including compensation. However, the state authorities have decided to prosecute the couple and imprison them in the Kaduna State Prison, where living conditions pose a severe threat to their wellbeing, especially in the current pandemic climate.

The FreeZakzaky campaign demands the immediate release of Sheikh and his wife and all those detained after the Zaria Massacre of 2015. For more information and further action, alerts visit the campaign page.

Action required

IHRC requests all campaigners to write to the Foreign Minister of their country to demand the Nigerian authorities release Sheikh and Mallima immediately and ensure the malicious prosecution of all the members of the Islamic Movement ceases immediately.

A model email/letter is also provided should you use it and emails for key countries. Please keep all correspondence polite.

Model Email

Subject: Urgent – Release Sheikh Zakzaky and Muallima Zeenah immediately

Dear [Insert Foreign Minister’s name],

I am writing to inform you about the continued illegal detention of Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and Muallima Zeenah. Over five years now, the Sheikh and his wife have been kept in unlawful detention.

A High Court ruling ordering the couple’s release in 2017 has never been implemented. And since they were charged in 2018, the Zakzakys’ trial has been adjourned several times, reinforcing the view that Nigerian authorities are abusing the judicial system to keep them in prison in the hope that they will die quietly in custody. Currently hearing to dismiss the case against them resumes on 1st July, at the Kaduna High Court.

I write to ask your office to make immediate interventions with the Nigerian authorities demanding they desist. Your office must seriously consider what punitive actions you can take unilaterally and part of international organisations, if necessary, to facilitate Nigeria’s compliance with fundamental human rights standards.

I trust you will make immediate representations.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]

Recipient email addresses:

Selected names and email addresses of Ministers of Foreign Affairs can be found below. Please contact us at info@ihrc.org if you have trouble finding the details of your country’s Minister.

United Kingdom

Dominic Raab

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

fcocorrespondence@fco.gov.uk

Turkey

MevlütÇavuşoğlu

Minister of Foreign Affairs

http://www.mfa.gov.tr/contact-us.en.mfa

Australia

Senator Marise Payne

Minister for Foreign Affairs

Senator.Payne@aph.gov.au