A suspected "Al-Qaeda" member standing trial on charges of terrorism, will today give evidence before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on how he was tortured by security men to confessing he is a terrorist. Muhammed Ashafa, 41, had alleged that he gave over 20 different statements confessing he was an Al-Qaeda trainee in Pakistan after he was seriously tortured by men of the State Security Service (SSS).His counsel, Mrs Mary I. Obegolu, had told the court on the last adjournment that between August 2004 when Ashafa was deported to Nigeria by the Pakistani government for being an illegal immigrant and March 2006, he had faced inhuman treatment in the hands of the SSS . Mrs Obegolu said: "Ashafa was beaten to stupor just to give the statement the SSS needed to prove he was a terrorist. In the process of the torture, they had his throat broken and that has developed into a tumour." She said the statement which the government is holding against Ashafa was masterminded by the SSS to prove he was guilty of terrorist offences.
The presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako, adjourned the case to today for Ashafa to prove he was actually tortured by the SSS. But the SSS had maintained they have evidence to prove that Ashafa is a terrorist.
Ashafa is accused of receiving $1 500 from an al-Qaeda group in Pakistan with the aim of planning attacks on American interests in Nigeria. He is charged with receiving and decoding messages from an al-Qaeda cell in Pakistan for Nigerian 'terror group' with the intention of making the attack. Since 2004, Ashafa has been facing trial from prison.