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Africa Subsaharan | |
Nigeria to allow detained Shia Muslim leader to seek medical treatment abroad | |
2019-08-06 | |
![]() Abroad = in Iran? Nigeria banned the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) in July after a week of protests in which the group said at least 20 of its members were killed in police crackdowns. Police gave no corpse count. The group's leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, has been held since 2015 when government forces killed around 350 people in a storming of its compound and a nearby mosque. He has not been released despite a court order to that effect, and the IMN said his detention is illegal. The judge in a court in the northwestern city of Kaduna granted Zakzaky and his wife leave to seek medical treatment in India under supervision of state officials.
The government says IMN incites violence, and a court has given the authorities permission to label it a terrorist organization. IMN denies it is violent, and says Zakzaky should be released in line with a December 2016 court order. IMN is the largest Shia organization in a country where around half of the population is Moslem, overwhelmingly Sunni. | |
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