AhlulBayt News Agency

source : ABNA
Wednesday

13 September 2017

4:14:44 PM
854033

Free Ayatollah Ibrahim Zakzaky, Shia women urge FG

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Women wing of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) have staged a protest in Abuja calling on the authorities to release its leader Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.

The protest took place at the headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission, Dailytrust reported.

Speaking to the Hausa service of the BBC Mrs Maimuna Bintu Husseini, one of the protesters accused the federal government of turning a blind eye to the laws of the land thus subjecting the cleric to unending torture despite the court’s order to effect his release.

The prominent cleric Ayatollah Ibrahim Zakzaky 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.

The judge 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.

Kolawole 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.

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) said there was a new plot to assassinate its leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, who was in an illegal detention.

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