{"id":23151,"date":"2021-01-26T20:17:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T20:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=23151"},"modified":"2021-01-26T20:17:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T20:17:44","slug":"nigerian-police-kill-two-sheikh-zakzaky-supporters-in-abuja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/nigerian-police-kill-two-sheikh-zakzaky-supporters-in-abuja\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian police kill two Sheikh Zakzaky supporters in Abuja"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>Police in Nigeria have shot dead at least two protesters\u00a0demonstrating against the continued detention of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky and his wife, Mallimah Zeenat, who have\u00a0been held for several years on trumped-up charges.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many protesters also sustained injuries as the Nigerian security forces attacked a popular rally of Sheikh Zakzaky\u2019s supporters in the Maitama district of the capital, Abuja, the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The massive protest rally was organized on Monday and continued into Tuesday against Sheikh Zakzaky\u2019s arrest and trial.<\/p>\n<p>The latest demonstrations erupted in response to the revelation that Zakzaky\u2019s wife has\u00a0contracted COVID-19 while\u00a0in police custody.<\/p>\n<p>The rally also comes as Nigeria\u2019s Kaduna State Court adjourned the trial of the couple until March.<\/p>\n<p>Those attending the protests called for the immediate and unconditional release of Zakzaky, who is the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN).<\/p>\n<p>The IHRC made the plea with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, reminding the illegal grounds on which the duo was being kept.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMallimah tested positive for COVID-19 this week in Kaduna state prison,\u201d the IHRC said, referring to the facility in the northwestern city of Kaduna\u00a0where they are being kept. Their release, it added, is necessary \u201cto protect them from the spread of COVID-19 in the country\u2019s jails.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>IHRC chief Massoud Shadjareh also said,\u00a0\u201cIt is nothing short of scandalous that justice continues to be denied to both Mallimah and Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky even after six years in custody during which the authorities have failed to bring any conviction and in which scores have been murdered in cold blood for protesting the injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cHow long is the international community going to allow the Nigerian government to continue murdering its own citizens?\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>More than five years have passed since hundreds of Muslims were killed in a massacre in the Nigerian city of Zaria.\u00a0In 2015, at least 348 civilians were killed and 347 bodies were secretly buried, according to the official account. The real death toll is said to have been much higher.<\/p>\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.com\/Detail\/2020\/09\/13\/633960\/IMN-raises-alarm-over-Zakzaky-health\">\n<div class=\"oembed\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.com\/Detail\/2020\/09\/13\/633960\/IMN-raises-alarm-over-Zakzaky-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.presstv.com\/photo\/20200913\/7a0ff8c0-3491-4ba8-8208-aa5dc7c4d805.jpg\" alt=\"IMN raises alarm over Zakzaky health\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.com\/Detail\/2020\/09\/13\/633960\/IMN-raises-alarm-over-Zakzaky-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IMN raises alarm over Zakzaky health<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.presstv.com\/Detail\/2020\/09\/13\/633960\/IMN-raises-alarm-over-Zakzaky-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Members of the Islamic Movement announced at a press conference that their leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky\u00a0health condition has continued to deteriorate because of the injuries he sustained during the December 2015 Massacre in Zaria.<\/a><\/div>\n<p>The massacre took place when the Nigerian army stormed a religious ceremony, organized by the IMN, which represents the Shia Muslim minority in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Not only has the Nigerian government refrained from paying compensation for the lives it took, it has also incarcerated followers of the movement and their leader, Sheikh Zakzaky, whose health is deteriorating in prison.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, Nigeria\u2019s federal high court ordered Zakzaky\u2019s unconditional release from jail following a trial, but the Nigerian government has so far refused to set him free.<\/p>\n<p>Zakzaky was charged in April 2018 with murder, culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of public peace, among other accusations. He has vehemently rejected all those charges.<\/p>\n<p>Sheikh Zakzaky was due to appear in court in September last year to face judgement on an application asking for the dismissal of the case against him, but the trial was adjourned to\u00a0January this year, something observers said could put Sheikh\u2019s life at risk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Press TV\u2019s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police in Nigeria have shot dead at least two protesters\u00a0demonstrating against the continued detention of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky and his wife, Mallimah Zeenat, who have\u00a0been held for several years on trumped-up charges. Many protesters also sustained injuries as the Nigerian security forces attacked a popular rally of Sheikh Zakzaky\u2019s supporters in the Maitama district of &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-islamic-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23153,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23151\/revisions\/23153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}