The State Court of Niger announced that it had postponed until June 7 the decision it was due to make on Friday May 10 concerning the lifting of the immunity of Mohamed Bazoum, overthrown in July 2023 by the military.
At the end of April, the lawyers of the former president, accused by the military authorities in power of "high treason" and "endangering the security" of the country, asked the court to postpone the hearing until on the grounds that their client had not been “validly notified” of the ongoing proceedings and had not been able to “communicate freely” with them. The postponement of the case to June 7 will allow “an adversarial debate at the trial” so that “the right to defense can be fully ensured,” Kadri Oumarou Sanda, the president of the Niger Bar Association, told the press. .
The international collective of Mr. Bazoum’s lawyers “takes note of the decision of the State Court to grant his request,” he wrote in a press release. He once again asks to “immediately put an end to the illegal confinement of President Bazoum and his wife, Hadiza Bazoum, detained since the coup d’état of July 26, 2023” in the presidential residence, in Spartan conditions. Their son, Salem Bazoum, was released in January. They also want to “meet their client without any restrictions” and have “access to the entire file”.
In February, Mr. Bazoum's lawyers asked the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to demand the release of their client, which it had ordered in December .
