Leader of Shiites Ibrahim El-Zakzaky to remain in custody

The Kaduna State High court has adjourned the trial of the embattled leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat.

The Shiites’ leader is currently facing trial over allegations of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, and disruption of public peace, among other charges.

He had earlier been denied bail by the presiding Judge, Justice Gideon Kurada during the last sitting on November 7, 2018.

In the application for bail he filed on June 6, 2018, El Zakzaky’s lawyer, Maxwell Kyon, told the court that his client’s health had badly deteriorated as a result of injuries he sustained in 2015 and his long stay in the custody of the DSS, hence the need for him and his wife to have access to urgent medical attention.

The prosecuting counsel, however, opposed the bail application, contending that the reasons advanced by El Zakzkay’s lawyer were not enough to grant him bail.

In his ruling at the time, Justice Kurada said El Zakzkay’s lawyer had failed to support his request for bail with enough medical evidence that would allow the court to exercise its discretion in his favour.

Consequently, he ordered that both of them be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Security Services (DSS) throughout the period of their trial.

The case was then adjourned to January 22, 2019, for accelerated trial.

At the resumed hearing, the prosecuting counsel, Bayero Debris, said the presiding judge again, adjourned the trial to March 25, 2019, to enable El-Zakzaky and his wife get proper medical attention.

El-zakzaky and his wife have been held since December 2015 in the wake of Shiites clash with the army in Zaria causing deaths of hundreds of people.

His followers regularly take to the streets to protest his prolonged detention.