Jul 30 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Niger’s courts have ordered the provisional release of four former ministers of the ousted government of former President Mohamed Bazoum, who was deposed following a coup in July last year by the current leader of the military junta, General Abdourahmane Tiani.
A Niamey appeals court yesterday ordered the provisional release of former Interior Minister Hama Amadou Souley, former Finance Minister Ahmat Jidoud, former Energy Minister Ibrahim Yacoubou and former Planning Minister Rabiou Abdou.
They have all spent more than a year in pre-trial detention accused of “endangering national security” and on charges of “treason” after condemning the coup d’état of the current leader, according to Radio France Internationale (RFI).
This comes after a Nigerien military court last June stripped Bazoum of his immunity, meaning he could now be tried on charges of treason and terrorism brought against him by the military.
Several NGOs, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Amnesty International (AI), have called on the junta to release the approximately 30 officials of the previous government who remain detained for political reasons.
The 2023 coup, which overthrew Bazoum and brought a military junta to power, brought Niger into a growing group of African regimes critical of the Western presence in their territories and inclined instead to rapprochement with Russia.
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