TEHRAN – The Society of Qom Seminary Teachers has strongly denounced the Nigerian government for its mistreatment of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, a top Shiite cleric and leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN).

Through its “inhumane and illegal” measures, backed by the U.S., the Zionist regime and the Al Saud, the Nigerian government has killed many Muslims, including the children of Sheikh Zakzaky, the society said in a statement on Monday.

In continuation of its savage actions, the Nigerian government is now seeking to poison the Shiite leader and increase pressures against Muslims in the African country, it added, according to Tasnim.  

The Iranian clerics also condemned the self-proclaimed advocates of human rights around the world for their deafening silence over the suffering of the Muslim leader.

The society further stressed that the Nigerian government is responsible for the life of Sheikh Zakzaky, calling for his immediate release.

A number of university students also voiced their protest to the Nigerian government over detention of Sheikh Zakzaky. 

Gathering in front of the Iranian Foreign Ministry building on Monday, they also criticized the ministry’s inaction with regard to the issue.

Sheikh Zakzaky has been held in detention since 2015 and was charged just in April 2018 with murder, culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, disruption of public peace and other accusations. He has pleaded not guilty.

In 2016, Nigeria’s federal high court ordered his unconditional release from jail following a trial, but the government has so far refused to set him free.

The top cleric, who is in his mid-sixties, lost his left eyesight in a raid which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.

MH/PA