The military junta that seized power in Niger said it plans to prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and endangering state security, an announcement that came hours after the mutinous officers said they were open to discussion with West African nations to ease the regional crisis.
If convicted, Bazoum could face the death penalty, according to Niger’s penal code. Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, a junta spokeswoman, declared on state television that the military government had “gathered the necessary evidence to prosecute before competent national and international authorities the ousted president and his local and foreign accomplices.”
Following his post-coup conversations with powerful West African politicians and “their international mentors,” who the leaders of the revolt accuse of fabricating claims and attempting to thwart a peaceful transition in order to justify a military intervention, Bazoum was charged, according to a Sunday night announcement.
Both a date for the trial of the democratically elected president of Niger and certain foreign countries were not mentioned in the statement. However, numerous citizens in the capital’s streets on Monday told they thought Bazoum was innocent. Niger, an impoverished country of some 25 million people, was seen as one of the last country’s that Western nations could partner with in Africa’s Sahel region to beat back a jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Before last month’s coup, Europe and the United States had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into propping up its military. Members of the presidential guard ousted Bazoum on July 26. He has since been under house arrest with his wife and son in the presidential compound in the capital, Niamey.
The junta has faced international pressure to release and reinstate Bazoum. Immediately after the coup, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS gave the regime seven days to return him to power and threatened to use military force if that did not happen. The deadline came and went with no action from either side. Last week, ECOWAS ordered the deployment of a “standby” force, but it’s unclear when or if it would enter Niger.
