PRESS RELEASE:

IHRC has written to the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari urging him to release the imprisoned leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenah al-Zakzaky.

The letter is the latest in a long line correspondence with Buhari and other Nigerian officials and expresses concern that the couple continue to be unlawfully detained and are undergoing prosecution despite a court ruling ordering their release.

Three years since the federal high court ruled that the pair’s detention was unlawful and unconstitutional and ordered the Nigerian government to release them, the ruling has not been enforced and to make matters worse, the pair have been transferred from the custody of the DSS to Kaduna State Prison awaiting prosecution, despite the obvious risks that this raises for their deteriorating health.

“It is a further travesty of justice that after detaining them without charge for a further two years after the federal court ruling, in 2018 the Nigerian authorities put the Zakzakys on trial on trumped up charges of abetting the commission of culpable homicide,” says the letter.

The letter urges Buharo to end the pair’s mistreatment immediately in a manner that is consistent with applicable domestic and international human rights laws and standards.

For more information or comment please contact the Press Office on media@ihrc.org or (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958522196

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The full text of the letter can be read here.

More information about the unlawful detention of the Zakzakys can be found here.

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IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
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