Verdicts are expected today in the trial of 60 demonstrators held by Nigerian authorities since 2019 for their alleged part in protests seeking the release of the founder of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky.

The protest in Abuja on 22 July 2019 was attacked by security forces resulting in the deaths of 11 protestors, a journalist and a police officer.

The brutal police response was part of a long series of attacks against supporters of the IMN after Sheikh Zakzaky was shot and arrested during a massacre targeting the IMN in Zaria in December 2015.

Thousands of civilians have been killed by security forces in the intervening period without a single official being tried let alone convicted over the use of disproportionate violence by officials.

The Zaria massacre in December 2015 which resulted in the deaths of over 1000 protestors is the subject of a complaint currently before the International Criminal Court.

The 60 defendants all face charges including homicide, disturbance of public peace and destruction of government properties.

Four days after the July 22 protest, the federal government listed the Islamic Movement as a terrorist organisation. However protests against the decision and the ongoing incarceration of the movement’s leader, Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky and his wife continued around the country.

Regular state violence against the Islamic Movement, even after the release of Sheikh Zakzaky in 2021, was a feature of the previous administration under President Buhari but has abated somewhat since Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed the presidency in 2023.

However, the shadow of the old regime continues to loom large with IMN supporters still languishing in jail without trial on fabricated charges

[ENDS]

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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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