Reads a lot: Anna Kareninaby Leo Tolstoy; Naiveby Voltaire: Life before you and The roots of heavenby Romain Gary; Balzac. Together with his wife, Hadiza, he walks daily down a long corridor and exercises on a stationary bike. He barely sees daylight through narrow windows and both have suffered from malaria. They have no telephones and only a television to watch films. Their only contact with the outside world is their doctor, who brings them food twice a week. Mohamed Bazoum, former president of Niger overthrown by a coup d’état on July 26, 2023, has been locked up for a year in two rooms with a bathroom and kitchen in the presidential palace under military guard. He refuses to resign and now they want to try him for conspiracy and treason. His great fear: that the world will forget them.
“Until October, we spoke to him every week,” says American lawyer Reed Brody, a member of the international legal community that is defending his cause, “but after he was accused of trying to escape, his phone was taken away and we have no direct contact. Until then, he always maintained that he was the president, that he had been elected and that he had not committed any crime. Therefore, he was not going to sign his resignation.” A socialist, philosophy teacher, former trade unionist and member of the Arab minority, Bazoum was convinced that education, especially for girls, was the best weapon for changing things in Niger.
On 26 July 2023, General Abdourahamane Tiani, head of the Presidential Guard and therefore of Bazoum’s security, rose up against him. After a few hours of uncertainty, the rest of the army units joined the coup plotters and the democratic regime was liquidated with the formation of a military junta. The president, who had only been in office for two years, was accused of being responsible for the deterioration of security in the country, under jihadist threat, and for “poor economic and social governance”. In reality, Tiani acted for survival: Bazoum planned to dismiss him as part of an ambitious plan to reform military institutions.
For weeks, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) planned a military intervention to overthrow the military and return power to civilians. The military juntas in Mali and Burkina Faso closed ranks with their Nigerien counterparts, and the risk of a regional conflict became clear. Finally, the military option faded away and Niger’s new leaders ended up expelling the French soldiers and ambassador from their territory, accusing them of supporting ECOWAS, in order to intensify their military collaboration with Russia, as had happened in their neighbouring countries. Only one obstacle remained in their plans to establish themselves in power: an elected president now under house arrest who refused to resign.
On October 19, the military junta announced that, hours earlier, President Bazoum had allegedly tried to escape with his wife and son (who were then being held with them). The plan, revealed by the military, seemed extremely risky: with the complicity of two guards, they were to drive ten kilometers through the capital to a point where two helicopters “from a foreign power” were waiting for them. Once on board, they were to be transported on a flight lasting one hour to northern Nigeria. Bazoum’s entourage claimed that it was all “a farce, a crude setup,” but from that moment on, the military junta cut off communication with the president, who until now had been allowed to keep his phones, and tightened the conditions of his captivity.
Last June, the State Tribunal, a special court created in November by the coup plotters, took the final step and removed Bazoum’s immunity so that he could be tried for the crimes of “conspiracy, attack on state security and treason”. In particular, they reproached him for having spoken by telephone in the hours after the coup with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and with the American secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, to support an armed intervention in Niger. “We were not even notified,” says Brody, “yet we presented our arguments which were not taken into account.”
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The international legal group, which includes Brody himself and four other prominent jurists from Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Niger, fears that he will be brought to trial imminently. “The situation is very serious. The door is open for the military junta to try and sentence President Bazoum to death,” said Moussa Coulibaly, former president of the Nigerien bar association and member of Bazoum’s defense team, in a recent statement. “This is a reality because he will undoubtedly be tried by the military, the same ones who overthrew him.” While waiting for his indictment, they have launched, in coordination with Bazoum’s family, an international campaign to demand his release, so far without success.
The ECOWAS court has supported this cause and at the recent summit of this regional body, held on 7 July, the heads of state included the demand for Bazoum’s release in their conclusions after an intense debate in which the Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo, was particularly combative. The presidents also appointed the new Senegalese head of state, Bassioru Diomaye Faye, as mediator with Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS last January, and he has named the prestigious diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily as his special envoy for the Sahel. Bazoum’s future could be in his hands.
Meanwhile, the legal community is aware of the difficulties he faces: they are actively working on his defence, but if necessary, they will not participate in a judicial farce. His case has been presented to the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention and work is also being done in other bodies, such as the African Union. Many countries are cautious about this case because, despite everything, they want to keep the channels of contact open with the new authorities in Niger. “He is a man of integrity, honest. The world cannot forget him like this,” concludes Brody.
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