(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Leader of a Nigerian Shia organization, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, remains in government custody despite a court ruling declaring his continued detention as unlawful.
So far, no government agency has commented over the issue as rights bodies call for respecting the ruling given on Dec. 2 by a high court in the capital Abuja.
The court had ordered the secret police to release El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenah within 45 days, and pay them $164,000 as compensation apiece.
Asked if the secret police had released El-Zakzaky to police authorities, police spokesman Don Awunoh told Anadolu Agency Monday: “We are not aware of any court ruling and if there was any...we have not been served any court order. In any case, I can tell you that the State Security Service [secret police] have not handed him to us as I speak to you."
El-Zakzaky and his wife have been detained since December 2015 following the army’s crackdown on the Shia organization and their followers. According to the army, the military acted within its rules of engagement after group members allegedly attacked a convoy of Gen. Tukur Buratai - a claim the Shia organization members said was false. At least 345 group members were killed in the crackdown.
Amnesty International called on Abuja to respect the court ruling.
“The 45 days deadline given for their release expires today. If government deliberately disregards the ruling of its own courts, it will demonstrate a flagrant and dangerous contempt for the rule of law,” country director of the body, Makmid Kamara, said in a statement.
The prominent cleric and his wife were taken into custody on December 14, 2115, after deadly clashes between the supporters of the IMN movement and Nigerian troops.
Nearly 350 members of the Shia movement were killed in the clashes. The sheikh was brutally injured and his house was reportedly destroyed by the army in the incident.
Kolawole said he had given 45 days for authorities to provide new accommodation for the Zakzaky family. The accommodation is to be in the town of Zaria, Kaduna state, where the family were detained, or in other parts of the state or alternatively any other part of northern Nigeria.
The judge said the State Security Service would pay each of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife $78,984 in compensation for the violation of their rights by being held in unlawful custody for nearly a year.
Nearly 100 IMN supporters were killed when Nigerian forces fired live rounds and tear gas at mourners during a peaceful march ahead of the Arbaeen mourning rituals, which mark 40 days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam. Authorities also destroyed a number of buildings belonging to the IMN.
The Nigerian government has stepped up its crackdown on the IMN since the December 2015 deadly incident.
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