475 Boko Haram suspects who have been facing trial have been ordered to be released by a court in Nigeria to enable these suspects access rehabilitation services.
The country’s justice ministry said on Sunday that “The prosecution counsel could not charge them (with) any offence due to lack of sufficient evidence against them.”
Last week hundreds of these suspects stood trial for various offences with the courts convicting one person for the kidnapping of Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.
The suspect was jailed for 15 years and an additional 15-years to run back-to-back.
Last week the suspects appeared in open court, after rights groups criticised earlier hearings in which more than 1,000 people stood trial in secret.
Four judges presided over the trial of another several hundred people accused of links to the group with the justice ministry saying then that “Unlike the first phase which was restricted, this phase is opened with some civil society groups, including human rights organisations and journalists invited to witness the proceedings”.
In October, the ministry had claimed that 45 people suspected of Boko Haram links had been convicted and jailed. A further 468 suspects were discharged and 28 suspects were remanded for trial in Abuja or Minna.
More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes in northeastern Nigeria since Boko Haram began an insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state.
Source: Africafeeds.com
