Communication to the Icc Prosecutor
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UPDATE OF THE 2016 IHRC ‘COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC PROSECUTOR’ PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 15 OF THE ROME STATUE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT TO OPEN A PRELIMINARY INQUIRY INTO THE ATTACK AGAINST THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA ON 12-14 DECEMBER 2015 IN ZARIA Author: Caterina Aiena UPDATED COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC: THE ATTACK AGAINST ISLAMIC MOVEMENT First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Islamic Human Rights Commission PO Box 598, Wembley, HA9 7XH © 2020 Islamic Human Rights Commission All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereinafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN: 978-1-909853-16-4 www.ihrc.org.uk 2 UPDATED COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC: THE ATTACK AGAINST ISLAMIC MOVEMENT UPDATE OF THE 2016 IHRC ‘COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC PROSECUTOR’ PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 15 OF THE ROME STATUE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT TO OPEN A PRELIMINARY INQUIRY INTO THE ATTACK AGAINST THE ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA ON 12-14 DECEMBER 2015 IN ZARIA Author: Caterina Aiena 3 UPDATED COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC: THE ATTACK AGAINST ISLAMIC MOVEMENT 4 UPDATED COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC: THE ATTACK AGAINST ISLAMIC MOVEMENT Table of Contents I Executive Summary ............................................................................................ 6 II Introduction .......................................................................................................... 8 III Summary of the major incidents from 2016 to date .................................... 10 A) From January 2016 to December 2016 .............................................. 10 B) From January 2017 to December 2017 ............................................... 11 C) From January 2018 to December 2018 .............................................. 12 D) From January 2019 to December 2019 .............................................. 12 E) From January 2020 to date .................................................................. 13 APPENDIX A: Recorded attacks against Islamic Movement of Nigeria’s members, supporters and religious places ..................................................................................................... 14 APPENDIX B: Updated list of people killed in the attack of December 2015 ............................. 17 5 UPDATED COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC: THE ATTACK AGAINST ISLAMIC MOVEMENT I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IHRC welcomes the Report on Preliminary Examination Activities 2019 1 by the Prosecution Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Nonetheless, IHRC is of the view that in these five years little has been demanded from the Nigerian government by the ICC and other leading international organizations. In respect of their role at the forefront of the fight for the protection of human rights, the international community should apply more pressure on the Nigerian authorities and remind the country of its obligations to uphold fundamental human rights. IHRC believes that the Nigerian authorities have been operating outside legal norms on the basis of examination of a number of incidents, within the context of a strategy which aims on one hand at destroying and concealing all evidence incriminating the soldiers responsible for the killings of December 2015, and on the other hand to cripple the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Islamic Movement). This is exemplified by the fact that a) the government has refused to follow the National Commission of Inquiry’s recommendation to prosecute Adeniyi Oyebade, the General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army’s 1st Division, widely believed to be behind the savage attacks; b) the Attorney General of a lower state court has started prosecuting Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife, 2 Mallima Zeenah, on the basis of false accusations in a sham trial, in defiance of the 2016 order for their release by the Federal High Court of Justice (a higher national court), who ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to release Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife Zeenah within 45 days. 3 This IHRC communication aims to provide an in-depth update on the happenings since the 2015 massacre occurred, to be seen in the context of continuous violations of the state of law and Zakzaky’s right to receive medical treatment by Nigerian authorities. IHRC believes that the trumped-up charges against Zakzaky and his wife reflect a misguided attempt by the government to conceal its responsibility for a planned and systematic attack by soldiers against unarmed civilians, along with the government’s culpability in a pattern of contempt for due process. In the first part, the report provides an update on the major incidents that have occurred from 2016 to April 2020. In the second and third parts, IHRC has attached two lists: 1) a list of attacks by Nigerian police and/or army against Islamic Movement members, supporters and religious places; 2) an up-to-date list of the people killed during the December 2015 attack in Zaria. 1 Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2019), https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/ item.aspx?name=191205-rep-otp-PE, p.50 2 https://www.ihrc.org.uk/activities/press-releases/25057-ihrc-urges-end-to-sham-trial-of-sheikh- zakzaky/ 3 https://www.ihrc.org.uk/activities/press-releases/11806-press-release-nigeria-ihrc-gives-qualified- welcome-to-court-order-to-free-islamic-movement-leader/ 6 UPDATED COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC: THE ATTACK AGAINST ISLAMIC MOVEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS: IHRC makes the following recommendations to the ICC: a. Take measures to ensure that all evidence of crimes and human rights violations are preserved, including all military and other official records, in particular records relating to the collection and disposal of the bodies of those killed in the attack of December 2015 in Zaria. There is credible evidence that the Nigerian authorities are seeking to destroy this evidence. 4 b. Ensure that the necessary safeguards are in place for the safety and security of witnesses who may testify against the army or the Nigerian government in any legal process. 5 c. Create and implement mechanisms for exhumations, autopsies and investigations into those killed in December 2015. Bodies interred in mass graves should be exhumed, under the supervision of the ICC or another international body, with a view to conducting independent autopsies by independent and recognized international forensic pathologists to establish the causes and circumstances of death. This process should be done as swiftly as possible, so as to allow bodies of the deceased to be returned to their families for burial in line with their cultural and religious norms. We believe the above steps are necessary in order to allow the ICC to bring successful prosecution. The Nigerian authorities have shown over the last 4 years that they have no intention of prosecuting those responsible for this crime. While it is necessary that the ICC follow its procedures, it should not lose sight of this fact or the Nigerian government and army’s willingness to destroy evidence that points to their culpability. Failure to take the above steps will allow the government and army to erase all evidence of their criminal actions. 4 https://www.ihrc.org.uk/activities/campaigns/12004-letter-to-the-icc-regarding-the-preservation- of-zaria-massacre-evidence/ 5 https://www.ihrc.org.uk/activities/press-releases/24438-nigerian-authorities-seeking-to-destroy- zaria-massacre-evidence/ 7 UPDATED COMMUNICATION TO THE ICC: THE ATTACK AGAINST ISLAMIC MOVEMENT II. INTRODUCTION 1. IHRC has at the core of its mandate the investigation of human rights abuses and referral of cases to all relevant international bodies. Since 2015, IHRC has been lobbying various Nigerian and international authorities for the release of Sheikh Zakzaky, including the ICC, the African Union, the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the EU, the Nigerian president and the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK. The campaign demands that those responsible for the massacres in Zaria in December 2015 are brought to justice, that Zakzaky receives adequate medical treatment and those still detained are freed. 2. In March 2016 IHRC wrote to the ICC urging it to investigate the massacre. 6 It called on the international tribunal, which has a mandate to prosecute people for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, to open a preliminary enquiry on the grounds that the crimes committed by the Nigerian army meet all the necessary legal requirements to warrant a preliminary investigation by the ICC prosecutor. The IHRC legal team has received reports of human rights abuses from a variety of sources in Nigeria and internationally, including NGOs and victims’ families. This material has been analysed and has been provided to the ICC Prosecutor on a regular basis. 3. IHRC maintains that the Islamic Movement is a victim of suppression by Nigerian authorities on the basis of its political orientation. In fact, the Islamic Movement has been targeted for being highly critical of the political corruption within the Nigerian establishment : Nigerian governmental relationships and intelligence sharing with the State of Israel; the relationship between facets of the Nigerian army and Boko Haram as well as other corrupt practices prevalent within the political establishment. Not surprisingly, the 2016 Annual Threat Assessment Report by the Office of the National Security Adviser