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The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked the Federal Government to release Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), for treatment in Iran.
Mohammed Montazeri, the country’s prosecutor-general, stated this in a letter obtained from AhlulBayt News Agency, an Iran-based news organisation.
The Shi’ites leader has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since December 2015 over over allegations of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of public peace, among others.
IMN is believed to be affiliated to the Shia Islamic ideology practised in Iran.
Montazeri urged the Nigerian judiciary to grant El-Zakzaky’s bail as his medical condition was fast deteriorating.
“I, as the prosecutor general of the Islamic Republic of Iran, urge the Nigerian judicial authorities (to take steps) in line with their judicial independence and support for a captive citizen, and provide the ground for his release and transfer him to the Islamic Republic of Iran for treatment,” the letter read in part.
Meanwhile, two days after the violent encounters between the Shiite members and the Nigerian Police, the group has accused the police of “holding on to 15 corpses of its supporters slain during the bloody clashes.”
It also called on the Federal Government to free its leader, Ibraheem Zakzaky, so he can receive medical attention.
In a press statement, yesterday, it blamed the security agencies for the downturn in the chain of events which recorded at least 13 casualties, many injured and properties worth millions of naira damaged.
Abdulhamid Zaria, Chairman Shuhada Foundation of the movement, cautioned the security agencies against any ”attempt to label them as a terrorist group”.
Mr Zaria also said the “police force is holding on to 15 corpses of supporters of the Islamic Movement it killed on Monday while Islamic funeral rites were performed on six of those known to us killed by the police on Tuesday.
“As of now, 15 are seriously injured people, some of whom we took to Abuja University teaching hospital Gwagwalada, but the police ‘snatched’ them by force on Monday 22/07/19, they are languishing in the detention Centre of SARS, in Abbatoir Abuja, without any medical care.”
