File photo used only for illustrative purpose
As
many as three hundred suspected members of the highly dreaded Boko
Haram insurgent sect have been remanded in custody as trial get
underway.
It has been revealed that as many as three hundred Boko Haram suspects were officially remanded in custody on Tuesday.
This is coming as hearings finally got under way in the first mass trials linked to the Islamist insurgency.
According to Agence France Presse, AFP, the media has been banned
on security grounds from attending proceedings at four civilian courts
set up in a military base in Kainji, Niger state.
But the justice ministry said in an emailed statement that three
separate cases, each involving 100 defendants, were heard in three of
the courts.
Ministry spokesman Salihu Othman Isah said the judges ordered all
the defendants to be remanded in custody for 90 days, pending further
investigations and preparation of charges.
The hearings will resume on January 9, the judges ruled.
One defendant, who is accused of attempting to bomb the main mosque in Bauchi, was ordered to be transferred to face trial.
A total of 1,669 suspects — 1,631 men, 11 women, 26 boys and one
girl — are being held at the Kainji facility, pending formal charges and
trial.
The government has said it plans to prosecute 651 others held at the Giwa military barracks, Maiduguri.
Observers have welcomed the prosecutions as a positive step but
lack of access to independent scrutineers has raised concerns about the
transparency of the process.
The justice ministry itself has already said the trials could be
affected by poor investigation techniques, a lack of forensic evidence
and an “over-reliance” on confessions.
That raises the prospect that defendants could be released without charge after years in custody.
The military has been accused of arbitrarily arresting thousands of
civilians during the conflict, which has left at least 20,000 and made
over 2.6 million homeless since 2009.
Human rights groups claim most have been held in overcrowded,
unsanitary conditions in military detention facilities, without access
to lawyers or ever having appeared in court.
Since the violence began eight years ago, only 13 people have been
put on trial and just nine have been convicted, according to government
figures.
The lead judge and state prosecutors on Monday promised to be “just and fair” in the cases.
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