By Enyichukwu Enemanna
As Niger marks the first anniversary of the 2023 coup that toppled a democratically elected government, Moussa Coulibaly, lawyer to the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum has raised concern that the former head of state could face death penalty.
A top court in the West African country had last month stripped Bazoum of his immunity from prosecution.
This paves way for him to be tried for offences of treason, which is punishable by death, in addition to other alleged crimes.
Heritage Times HT reports that Bazoum, 64, and his wife Hadiza have been held in detention since last year with no telephone access and no visits allowed apart from a doctor, the lawyer Coulibaly said.
Former colony, France has earlier in the week demanded the release of Bazoum and his wife, but junta leader Gen Abdourahamane Tiani has declined.
He has instead given an address on TV in which he defiantly said no state or foreign organisation can tell Niger how to behave.
In addition to Bazoum, at least 30 former government officials and people with close links to him have been arbitrarily detained, as well as several journalists, says a joint report by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights.
“It is safe to say that there is no longer any rule of law in Niger”, Coulibaly, the ex-president’s lawyer and the former head of Niger’s Bar Association, told the BBC.
The lifting of Bazoum’s immunity “possibly implies that he will be judged by a special court which will be neither independent nor impartial and he risks the death penalty by shooting if convicted”, the lawyer said.
Tchiani’s speech on Thursday evening appears indirectly targeted on France, the former colony.
“Those who fantasise about the imminent return to power of regimes that have fallen under their sway are in for a rude awakening. Before it’s too late, they’ll have to face facts: our march towards full sovereignty is inexorable,” he told viewers.
“No state, no inter-state organisation, will dictate to us how to behave, nor its agenda in terms of strategic or diplomatic partnerships,” Gen Tchiani pointedly said.
