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Nigeria to allow detained Shi'ite Muslim leader to seek medical treatment abroad

Published 05/08/2019, 12:53
Updated 05/08/2019, 13:00
Nigeria to allow detained Shi'ite Muslim leader to seek medical treatment abroad

By Garba Muhammad
KADUNA, Nigeria, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A Nigerian judge ruled on
Monday that the detained leader of a banned Nigerian Shi'ite
Muslim group could seek medical treatment abroad, after a series
of protests calling for his release turned violent last month.
Nigeria banned the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) in
July after a week of protests in which the group said at least
20 of its members were killed in police crackdowns. Police gave
no death toll. The group's leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, has been held since
2015 when government forces killed around 350 people in a
storming of its compound and a nearby mosque. He has not been
released despite a court order to that effect, and the IMN said
his detention is illegal.
The judge in a court in the northwestern city of Kaduna
granted Zakzaky and his wife leave to seek medical treatment in
India under supervision of state officials.
Zakzaky's lawyers have said that while in detention, Zakzaky
lost an eye to advanced glaucoma and risks losing the other,
while shrapnel lodged in his body since the 2015 storming of the
IMN compound was causing lead poisoning.
The government says IMN incites violence, and a court has
given the authorities permission to label it a terrorist
organisation. IMN denies it is violent, and says Zakzaky should
be released in line with a December 2016 court order.
IMN is the largest Shi'ite organisation in a country where
around half of the population is Muslim, overwhelmingly Sunni.
Nigeria considers some Islamist movements to be a security
threat after a decade combating the insurgency by Sunni Muslim
militant group Boko Haram in which 30,000 people have been
killed. The death of Boko Haram's leader in custody was one of
the events that set that group on a violent path.

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