Court orders release of Nigeria’s detained Shiite leader

ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria’s federal high court Friday ordered the intelligence agency and justice minister to free the country’s detained Shiite leader and his wife, pay damages of 50 million naira (167,000 dollars) and provide a home to replace their bulldozed property.

Friday’s ruling comes a year after a Dec. 12-14 attack in which Nigerian troops gunned down at least 348 Shiites, wounded scores and destroyed three compounds of the Iranian-inspired Islamic Movement in Nigeria at its headquarters in northern Zaria city, according to a government-appointed commission of inquiry. One soldier was killed.

Leader Ibraheem Zakzaky was shot seven times and lost one eye. Two of his sons were killed. Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenah, have been held illegally since Dec. 14, 2015 despite the law requiring a suspect be charged in court within 24 hours of arrest.

Nigeria’s military has claimed the raid came after Shiites blocked a military convoy and attempted to assassinate the chief of army staff — a suggestion rejected by human rights groups.

Officials have charged the Shiites are plotting a Boko Haram-type Islamic extremist uprising but the group insists it is peacefully pursuing the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria, a country of 170 million people almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims. Most Muslims in Nigeria are Sunni but Zakzaky commands millions of followers.

Nigerian security forces often clash with Shiites, who often block state highways with processions of up to 1 million people. Last month, police said eight Shiites and a sergeant were killed in clashes in northern Kano city. The Shiites put the dead at 50 and witnesses said security forces opened fire without provocation or warning on a religious procession.

On Friday, Judge Gabriel Kolawole Friday ordered the Department of State Security to free Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenah, within 45 days, and told the justice minister use the delay to find them a suitable residence.

Government lawyer Tijani Gazali said they would study the judgment.