The Kaduna State High Court has discharged and acquitted the leader, Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat after six years in custody.
The presiding judge, Justice Gideon Kurada in his ruling on Wednesday, July 28, declared the couple discharged and acquitted of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, and other criminal charges levelled against them.
El-Zakzaky, whose trial commenced on December 2018, was arrested following a clash between his followers and the convoy of the immediate-past Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai in Zaria in December 2015.
The court on Wednesday, sat on a no case submission filed by El-zakzaky through his legal team led by Femi Falana SAN
Speaking to newsmen after the closed door hearing, counsel to the Islamic leader, Marshal Abubakar, said;
“The trial of Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife Malama Zeenat Ibraheem has come to an end today (yesterday). The court has upheld our no-case submission. The court found that the charges that were filed in 2018 pursuant to a penal law enacted by the Kaduna State government in 2017 over offenses allegedly committed in 2015 is ab-initio.
“The court ruled that the charge ought not to be in the first place because you cannot arraign a man for an offence that was already committed as at the time the said crime was not an offence. And the court was very emphatic on that.
“Yes, the Kaduna State government has powers to enact laws, but they cannot enact law to prosecute an offence prospectively. That is the first ground on which the court held that, that charge was incompetent.
“On another footing, the no case submission we filed in court. The court agreed with us that the trial lacked merits. That, the prosecution only came to court to tell stories that are at cross variance with the offences that were alleged in the charges. The court agreed with us that, El-Zakzaky and his wife have committed no offence.
“The court however discharged and acquitted El-Zakzaky and his wife. It said there should not have been any charge against El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat in the first place.”
Reacting to the development in a statement, the President, IMN Media Forum , Ibrahim Musa, said: “We give praises to the Almighty for yet another successful outing, which further proves to the world that the Islamic movement and its leader are only victims of impunity. Both governments have again failed in court after a fair trial.
“We expect them to respect the judgment of this honourable court and the course of justice to release them with immediate effect”.
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