In Nigeria, a mass trial against 125 Boko Haram members took place this week in a military detention center in Niger state. All the defendants were found guilty. They were charged with, among other things, financing terrorism and crimes related to the ICC, the International Criminal Court.
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It was Lateef Fagbemi, the Nigerian Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, who announced the verdict of this trial, which was held over two days at the Kanji military detention center in Niger State, located in the west of the country, in a statement on Friday, July 26. Nigeria.
Of the 125 people tried by the federal high court, 85 were found guilty of financing the terrorism22 of crimes related to the International Criminal Court, that is to say crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes. The other 18 accused were convicted of various terrorist offences.
A trial before a reintegration process
According to the Nigerian press, representatives of the National Human Rights Commission, the Nigerian Bar Association and UNODC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, attended the hearings of this trial to attest to the conformity of the procedure.
Between 2017 and 2018, several trials of this type had already taken place. The Attorney General’s Office reported on July 26 that 400 veterans of Boko Haram who had served their sentences were transferred to a centre in Gombe State, in the north-east of the country, to be “ rehabilitated, deradicalized and subsequently reintegrated “.
A center that is part of Operation Safe Corridor. This operation, set up in 2016, aims to allow former Boko Haram fighters to reintegrate into society.
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