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Zakzaky |
Lawyers
for the detained leader of Nigeria's Islamic Movement (IMN) and his spouse have
filed an application to a High Court in a bid to secure their immediate release.
The application,
which was submitted yesterday to a court in Abuja, seeks declarations that
Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat have their constitutional and legal
rights violated both during and after the massacre of IMN supporters last
December.
According
to eye-witnesses thousands of soldiers unleashed a three-day orgy of violence
on members of the IMN on December 12 last year in the northern city of Zaria.
At least 1000 civilians were killed in the attacks which the army falsely
accused the IMN of starting by trying to assassinate the Chief of Army Staff,
General Tukur Buratai, who was allegedly passing through the vicinity of the
IMN's headquarters.
The
army attack came as the IMN prepared to hold flag changing ceremony to mark the
beginning of the Islamic month of RabiuAwwal, the birth month of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad at its headquarters in Hussainiyya Baqiyatullah. It is
believed that soldiers used this gathering as a pretext to try and fatally
weaken the IMN by crippling its leadership and demolishing its religious
buildings and symbols. A similar military assault in July 2014 during an annual
procession marking the occupation of Palestine saw over 30 people killed.
Although
neither Zakzaky and Hajia Zeenat were not anywhere near the alleged incident,
the two saw soldiers attack their family home, burning it to the ground. Sheikh
Zakzaky was shot in his right leg and left arm while his wife was shot in her
thigh and stomach. Sheikh Zakzaky now walks with a limp and has suffered what
is believed to be permanent damage to one eye and lost all functions in his
left hand.
Among
the respondents named in the applications are the Department for State Security
(DSS), the police, Kaduna state government, the Nigerian army and the Attorney
General of Nigeria.
The
application asks the court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the
shooting dead in cold blood of three of the pair's teenage sons during the
army's attack.
It also
seeks a declaration that the detention of the pair at Kaduna and Abuja, their
maltreatment, and denial access to family members and the Islamic Movement in
Nigeria (IMN) since December 14, 2015 is illegal and unconstitutional as it
violates their fundamental rights to personal liberty and association.
Neither
Zakzaky or Hajia Zeenat have been charged with any crimes. Yet both have been
held without charge and without access to proper medical attention for over
three months. Moreover, rather than prosecute the officials and soldiers
responsible for the massacre the Kaduna state government has gone after IMN
members who survived the brutal army onslaught charging some 200 of them with
offences including culpable homicide.
Lawyers
representing the pair said they intended to press their case forcefully before
the Federal High Court to ensure that the 'tyranny' by the Military and the
Department of State Services is not allowed to continue.
"There
is no law that we know of that justifies the killing of innocent civilians or
the harassment, arrest and detention of persons living within the confines of
the Nigerian State without their being told the basis for their arrest and detention.
Released
by:
Islamic
Movement In Nigeria
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