DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Niger's highest court has lifted the immunity of the country's democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, nearly a year after he was toppled by mutinous soldiers, his lawyer said Friday, paving the way for the military junta to prosecute him for high treason.
Bazoum's attorney, Reed Brody, made the announcement on Friday.
Bazoum and his family have been under house arrest since a military coup last summer toppled his government. The junta has said it plans to prosecute him for “high treason” and endangering national security, and earlier this year began legal proceedings to lift his immunity at a new provincial court, the country's highest judicial body.
Before Mr. Bazoum was forcibly removed from power, Niger was the West's last major security partner in the Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara Desert that Islamist militant groups have turned into a global breeding ground for terrorism.
According to leading human rights group Human Rights Watch, the state court trial has been marred by serious irregularities, including violations of Bazoum’s rights to present evidence in his defence, to have access to a lawyer, and to be heard by an independent court.
According to HRW, Bazoum's lawyers have been unable to contact him since October last year and have had limited access to case files.
Late last year, the Supreme Court of the European Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ruled that Bazoum and his family had been arbitrarily detained and called for him to be reinstated to his job.
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