Despite the judgment of a Kaduna State High Court which discharged and acquitted them, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Zenaat, have been denied their travel documents and cannot travel abroad for medical treatment, the Academy Forum of IMN, has said.
The organisation therefore called on the international community to intervene and prevail on the Federal Government to obey the court order and release the couple’s passports.
The spokesperson for IMN, Abdullahi Muhammad, said this in a petition to the United Nations, European Union, Amnesty International, National Human Rights Commission, Canada, Norway and Switzerland.
The stamped and acknowledged copy of the petition dated August 20, 2021, was obtained by Saturday PUNCH in Abuja on Friday.
The petition read in part, “We write to inform you that despite the July 28 ruling of the Kaduna State High Court, which, apart from discharging and acquitting Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenat, serves yet as another opportunity for them to travel for the long awaited, and even long overdue, medical treatment, government has decided to defy the judgement and frustrate the overseas trip as it continues to hinder the couple from retrieving their travel documents.
“Having had the documents confiscated during their aborted medical trip to India, the couple remains stranded. But, due to the fact that the medical leave granted by the Kaduna State High Court didn’t require security agents to sequester any travel documents, the seizure was beyond the bounds of legality, a pure transgression.
“It is glaringly obvious that the government is only bending the laws of the land in its pursuit of an unjust cause. The couple’s medical reports, submitted to the court in 2019 through their counsel, Femi Falana (SAN), brought about its acquiescence in the medical leave to the Asian subcontinent.’’
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It noted that the court had acceded that the couple’s deteriorating health condition didn’t merely require qualified medical personnel for an effective examination, but also a medical facility with up-to-date equipment.
According to the report, travelling abroad for medical treatment is a top priority to the couple, and the Sheikh emphasised it during a meeting with the group on July 31.
It added, “To spend five years and seven months in detention with numerous pieces of shrapnel in the body, releasing deadly poison into the blood, is no child’s play.’’
News Source: Punch Newspapers
