Hawzah News Agency –IHRC has written to the UN urging the organisation to intervene in the struggle to secure necessary travel documents for the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, and his spouse Mallimah Zeenah, from the country’s authorities.

Since the pair were released from illegal detention last July, they have been prevented from flying abroad to seek much needed medical treatment by Nigerian authorities who continue to refuse to return their passports.

The couple are taking legal action seeking the restoration of their passports but face stalling tactics from the government which seems determined to frustrate their efforts.

Sheikh Zakzaky has lead poisoning after sustaining four gunshot injuries during the 2015 massacre of Islamic Movement of Nigeria members and supporters by the country’s armed forces. The toxicity is believed to be a direct result of the shrapnel from bullets left in his body. The sheikh has also lost sight in one eye and the use of one arm and has suffered several strokes.

Mallimah Zeenah is also seriously ill with high blood pressure and can barely walk because of a bullet trapped near her spine.

Their ongoing maltreatment, and the endless adjournment of court hearings, supports the view that after wrongly incarcerating the couple for over five years the Nigerian authorities are continuing their witchhunt against the couple and abusing the judicial system to keep them in Nigeria in the hope that they will die quietly.

The case of the Zakzakys is making a mockery of rule of law and due process. At every stage of their ordeal the Nigerian government has flagrantly flouted the country’s laws and its citizens’ fundamental rights with impunity.

We urge you to do everything in your power to impress upon the Nigerian government the wrongfulness of their actions, the importance of upholding the country’s constitutional and internationally agreed human rights and the medical urgency to restore the Zakzakys’ passports.