By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The forcefully removed President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum will slam a legal suit against the leader of junta, General Abdourahamane Tiani and “all others”, his lawyers said on Monday.
The suit against Tchiani and those behind the coup that deposed the democratically elected leader, Bazoum alleges “attack and conspiracy against state authority, crimes and offenses committed by civil servants and arbitrary arrests and confinements.”
It is expected to be officially lodged in the next few days with a court in the capital Niamey, one of the lawyers, Dominique Inchauspe, told AFP.
Bazoum, who was overthrown on July 26 has since been detained in the presidential palace and his legal team in a statement is appealing for the intervention of the UN Human Rights Council.
The lawyers also said they were appealing to two bodies of the UN Human Rights Council including its working group on arbitrary detention of President Bazoum.
The coup was “an infringement on the dignity of the Nigerien state”, Inchauspe said while reaffirming the “absolute necessity” to restore the rule of law.
Bazoum had filed a lawsuit with a court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on September 18, his Senegalese lawyer Seydou Diagne has said.
