El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenah were freed by the Kaduna State High Court in 2021 after spending over five years in detention.



Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as the Shiites’ group, has urged a Federal High Court in Maitama, Abuja to release his passport and his wife’s, to enable them to travel abroad for medical attention.

El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenah were freed by the Kaduna State High Court in 2021 after spending over five years in detention.
The cleric is asking the court to compel the Nigerian Immigration Service to release their passport to them so that they can travel abroad for treatment.

Zakzaky sustained injuries including an eye injury when Nigerian soldiers stormed his home in December 2015, killing hundreds of his followers and injuring several others.

The spokesman for the IMN, Ibrahim Musa, earlier said the government had not returned their passports to them since the medical trip which was allegedly scuttled by the government in 2018.

Musa said both the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Services (DSS) have denied being in possession of the couple’s travelling documents since they were released by the court.

The couple were detained for over five years and prosecuted for alleged culpable homicide among other charges following a clash between IMN members and soldiers in Zaria, Kaduna State on December 2015.

The Kaduna State High Court, presided by Justice Gideon Kuradah, had in a ruling on July 28, 2021, said the Kaduna State Government failed to establish a prima facie case against the defendants.

It therefore discharged and acquitted them.

However, after their release, the state government filed fresh charges against them at the Federal High Court, bordering on alleged terrorism and treasonable felony.

“Four weeks after being discharged and acquitted by a Kaduna State High Court, El-Zakzaky and his wife, were yet to travel abroad for medical treatment as their international passports are still being held by security agencies and a new one has not been issued to them,” a statement by IMN had said.